Hotel California open house shut down by police and fire officials

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

An open house at Hotel California on Monday evening was shut down after about an hour by police and fire officials.

The hotel at the state Route 46 interchange of Interstate 80, near the new Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, invited the public to get a sneak peek of its rooms, restaurant and nightclub.

The open house started at 5 p.m., but about 6 p.m., the township fire department came onto the property and shut it down.

“The problem is they don’t have any permits to open the building up to the public,” said Fire Chief Andy Frost III. “As far as fire codes are concerned, they have a few more things to complete.”

He said the fire department, with police standing by, asked management to ask the guests to leave. They were cordial and complied, he said.

The hotel was full of visitors at the time, said Dave Robich, who handles entertainment at the hotel, which is known for the faux palm trees in the parking lot. He estimated that at least 350 people had toured the facility at the time of the raid, and more were trying to get in.

“People were having a great time, loving it, when the police showed up,” said Robich. “A parade of more people were still coming into the parking lot.”

Robich said visitors were disappointed when the open house was shut down. “As people were leaving, they said, ‘This is not right, this is beautiful, we’ll be back when you are open,’” he said.

Robich said the hotel has an occupancy permit, but was told by officers that it did not obtain some kind of a fire department permit.

“[Officials] knew all day we were going to have this open house and they let it happen,” he said. “It’s political.”

The hotel is owned by Sebastian Rucci, who has been engaged in a struggle with township officials to get a liquor license. A hearing on the license application is scheduled for Thursday.

Township Trustee Jim Davis said by phone Monday night: “It’s not just a permit — it’s an occupancy permit. In order to obtain an occupancy permit, there is a fire check needed to be done,” among other checks by fire department officials, he explained.

Davis said this type of permit can be obtained at any time before opening, “but an occupancy permit has to be obtained before large groups occupy the building.” He continued, “To my knowledge, Mr. Rucci was informed of this a month ago prior to occupying the building.”

“This is not an instance where Austintown Township has made a decision to shut him down. This is an instance ... where he chose not to follow the guidelines given to him and that caused him to be shut down,” Davis said.

Rucci said: “This one can be attributed to me for not having it.”

He added that if he would have thought about it, he would have applied for a temporary occupancy permit. But he was encouraged by the turnout. “Some of the other people I’m working with really wanted this push ... it was very good because it gave us a target date to work toward.”

Rucci also said they are still a few weeks away from opening. “Our parking lot was jammed ... it was nice to see the reaction of people,” Rucci said.

He had operated the Go Go Cabaret club on the property five years ago. He and other principals in the club were charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering, perjury and two counts each of promoting prostitution. Those cases were dismissed or won on appeal by Rucci, who is an attorney.