Fire at hotel, cabaret causes sizable damage

By Ed Runyan

Officials don’t know what caused the fire.

AUSTINTOWN — The difficulties for the Economy Inn hotel and Go Go Girls Cabaret at state Route 46 and Interstate 80 continue.

The two businesses were struck by a fire early Sunday that caused $300,000 in damage and closed them down again.

Andy Frost, assistant Austintown fire chief, said the fire apparently started in a restroom area behind the hotel’s lobby at 3:23 a.m. and was extinguished in less than an hour.

No injuries were reported.

There is fire damage to parts of the single-story structure on the east side of the hotel and smoke damage in the strip club and lobby. There was no damage to the four-story part of the structure, which houses the hotel rooms. All hotel customers were evacuated.

Investigators don’t know yet what caused the fire, Frost said. The state fire marshal’s office was called to assist with the investigation because of the dollar loss, he said.

The single-story building houses hotel offices, restrooms and the Go Go Girls Cabaret, which was unoccupied at the time of the fire.

Hotel management could not be reached Wednesday by phone.

The strip club and hotel, formerly known as the America’s Best Value Inn, have been the site of other problems and controversies over the past year.

Both were closed in April, when Ohio Edison turned off the hotel’s power for nonpayment. The strip club reopened soon afterward, but the hotel had to put its backup power generator and fire alarm system back in working order before it could reopen.

The strip club and hotel have also been cited by the township zoning department for using advertisements that the department says violate the township’s zoning ordinances. The advertisements were a banner and a satellite dish. The banner has since been removed.

Robert Neill, operator of the strip club, also pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor zoning code violations in county court in Austintown in February regarding building and fire code violations he committed while renovating the club before it opened last year.

Neill also filed a federal lawsuit against the township fire department and county building inspection department, saying the departments were attempting to violate the strip club’s freedom of speech rights by issuing a stop-work order on the renovations.

The case was eventually settled out of court.

runyan@vindy.com