Hacienda Hotel Gets Some More TLC

Volunteers further spruced up the Hacienda Hotel in downtown New Port Richey over the weekend.

On Saturday, the city held its second community cleanup day for the historic landmark on Main Street. Folks got to work painting ironwork and railings, repairing broken windows and installing a sprinkler system, Deputy Mayor Rob Marlowe reported in a recent blog.

The Hacienda opened for business as a hotel in 1927.  The building eventually was used as an assisted living facility. The city CRA bought the Hacienda in the early years of last decade, and the building has been vacant since 2006. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The city council voted recently to end their relationship with Community Development Partners, a development firm. The city had been negotiating with the firm for years on the proposal to redevelop the Hacienda.

Now, leaders are faced with pondering next steps for the Hacienda Hotel.

Saturday’s cleanup had less people than the city’s first cleanup. The first cleanup, held Jan. 10, attracted more than 350 people. This attracted about 100 people, Marlowe said.

City council members were among the volunteers. City council candidate Jon Tietz was there, too. He offered up photos for us.

He said this about the cleanup:

I was assigned on the irrigation team and spent the morning digging. There wasn't much "skilled" labor available that I saw, as most of the irrigation piping work went quickly and was handled by only two or three volunteers. We got it done quickly though. All of the painting was done by hand, and I did not personally see any of the work on the windows that was done. But the irrigation system is in and the city workers said they would be sodding the area soon. Not all of the irrigation could be completed as some PVC parts were missing but 95% was completed and the workers said they would be back to finish it off. I found a pocketknife buried in the dirt while digging. Not sure what happened to it. I left it on the sidewalk and it walked off! Kids have clearly been inside the courtyard messing around. There was still some trash and debris in the soil even after the previous cleanup.