SOUTH PORTLAND – The South Portland Fire Department on Monday ordered the immediate eviction of all tenants of a building on the Super 8 motel complex on Route 1 because it lacks both an occupancy permit and a working fire alarm system.

The move comes just weeks after the City Council refused an offer by MaineLy Property Management, which has run the motel since January, to buy abutting public property, due to ongoing health and safety concerns surrounding the motel.

On April 22, the day of that denial, EMTs responded to a call from the motel and ended up transporting a patient who was living in the “300 building,” which lacks an occupancy permit.

“That was a little concerning, that they are having people stay in a building that is not up to snuff, code wise,” said City Manager Jim Gailey, at the time. “Although code enforcement and the fire department are working with them to bring all of their buildings up to code, that one should not have had anyone living in it.”

Then, on May 8, the same thing happened again. An ambulance was called to the motel and took someone from Building 300.

According to Code Enforcement Officer Pat Doucette, that building lost its permit when closed “four of five years ago due to lack of business” by the property owner, East Coast Hospitality. A new inspection is required to renew the permit, she said, and the city has known “since March” that MaineLy Property Management “inadvertently rented space in that building.”

The Super 8 reportedly rents rooms on a long-term basis, as well as to more traditional motel traffic. On Monday afternoon, shortly after Fire Chief Kevin Guimond paid a visit, MaineLy Property Management president Tim Ly said he “only just found out” that he lacked the proper permits to let out rooms in Building 300.

“Of course, if I had known, there wouldn’t have been anybody in there, certainly,” he said.

Beyond that, however, Ly refused to answer any questions, saying he needed permission from East Coast Hospitality before speaking to the press.

“I have my bosses to answer to, as I’m sure you have, too,” he said.

By Tuesday morning at the Current’s deadline, Ly still had not received the go-ahead to speak, he said.

Doucette said Tuesday she does not have a list of issues with the building because no inspection has been done.

“All we know is that it hasn’t been open for quite a while,” she said. “We just don’t know if everything is up to code relative to life safety issues.”

However, Guimond said there are “serious issues” with the building. Although he declined to list the exact violations under Chapter 8 of the city code that enabled him “post the building,” Guimond did say, “The biggest issue is no working fire alarm and no smoke detectors in that building.”

“That’s huge,” said Guimond.

Doucette said wires running the system apparently were cut. A common complaint of abutting property owners at the April 22 council meeting was that the building is infested with raccoons.

According to Guimond, MaineLy was advised to get everyone out of Building 300 after the April 22 rescue call. At the time of the May 8 call, it still had five tenants. After giving a one-week warning, Guimond returned to the Super 8 Monday morning with Deputy Chief Miles Haskall and a police escort to find three people still in residence. Other officers were reportedly already on scene because the motel office had been broken into the night before.

According to the police department spokesman, Lt. Frank Clark, “hundreds of dollars in electronics” were taken, as well as “numerous” credit cards.

One issue city councilors had with the Super 8 was the number of police calls to the property for a variety of reasons, from theft to what Police Chief Ed Googins calls “people not being very nice to each other.” There were 68 police visits to the site in 2012, before MaineLy took over, and 37 from the start of its tenure until April 22.

Guimond said evictions ended up being issued to two residents of Building 300 and that the city’s general assistance office was working to find those people alternative living arrangements.

“They were obviously upset,” said Guimond, adding he “can count on one hand” the number of times South Portland has taken similar action during his 26-year career.

“The property managers are working with us but there is only so much that can be done in a week,” he said. “If we thought they could get this solved in a few days we’d work with them and let the residents stay until they got things taken care of. But, really, this is just a building that’s kind of gotten away from them.

“This is a place that has no protection and no monitoring,” said Guimond. “We’re simply working to get people in a safer place. That’s what it’s all about.”

According to Doucette, MaineLy did try to evict some of the long-term tenants from Building 300, particularly the final two ousted by the fire chief. “But that can be quite a process,” she said.

Guimond said he will return to inspect the motel in two weeks, this time accompanied by the state fire marshal. Doucette said code enforcement also plans to pay a visit to all of the Super 8 buildings “in the very near future.”

The Super 8 motel complex on Route 1. Staff photo by Duke Harrington