COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Northeast Side “problem hotel” is being evacuated and boarded up today after a county judge ordered it temporarily closed at the request of city authorities.
Franklin County Environmental Court Judge Daniel Hawkins granted Columbus City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer, Jr.’s request for a temporary injunction closing the Super 8 hotel at 1078 E. Dublin Granville Road.
Pfeiffer says his office filed a complaint Tuesday for temporary and permanent orders to close the hotel’s doors after numerous complaints of drug use, fire code violations and more than 700 police runs to the location in the last two and a half years.
The hearing to consider the permanent injunction against the hotel and its owners, Northland Hotel, Inc., and its managing partners is scheduled for next Wednesday in the Franklin County Environmental Court, Pfeiffer said.
According to Pfeiffer, Columbus police made 301 runs to the Super 8 in 2012, 311 in 2013, and 112 in the first half of this year.
A man who had overdosed on heroin was taken to a hospital after police found him lying on the floor of a room on Saturday, Pfeiffer said.
Several investigations led to drug arrests and convictions while also uncovering evidence of extensive drug dealing, Pfeiffer said. Undercover officers made several purchases of heroin, cocaine, and oxycodone.
Registered letters – the most recent sent on February 24 — notified Northland Hotel that illegal activity was taking place inside the Super 8 but several more covert drug purchases were made after the letter was received, Pfeiffer said.
The State Fire Marshal also found several fire code violations during multiple inspections in 2013 and 2014, Pfeiffer said.