Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

The old Park Place Hotel was demolished on Sunday, June 24, at promptly five minutes until eight in the morning.

The city paid roughly $762,000 for the demolition, which City Manager Troy Schulte said was well worth the investment.

“This has been a cancer down here for a long time,” Schulte said from outside the blast zone on Sunday morning. “We’re really looking forward to this problem being solved.”

According to John Baccala, Communications/Community liaison with the City’s Neighborhood and Housing Services department, the June 24 implosion was coordinated with the help of a variety of community partnerships.

“We coordinated with the Missouri Highway Patrol, the EPA, Police, Fire; it was all hands on deck for this event,” said Baccala.
A 500-foot “blast area” was cordoned off, and roughly 200 people – mostly employees of area businesses – lined the streets to witness the end of an era. Following the event, cheers and applause erupted from the crowd.

The hotel fell into disrepair after the present owner abandoned the property, leaving employees with bounced paychecks, and guests to fend for themselves after the entire staff walked out en mass. Over the last two years, a series of fires were set in the building as it became a haven for scrappers and transients, one of which fell to his death in an elevator shaft in November of 2016.

City Officials indicated that salvage operations will continue for about sixty to ninety days.