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The fallen Fallon Hotel

The Fallon Hotel is yet again undergoing a reckoning.

A new owner wants to keep it, with dreams to rejuvenate the sprawling brick building.

The city redevelopment authority also wants it, perhaps to ultimately demolish the building due to its very, very poor condition and hazardous nature.

And folks, The Fallon on East Water Street next to the Lock Haven YMCA is indeed in bad shape.

If it survives as is, it will take a boatload of money to bring to code … to make it safe and for it to live again as a hotel and/or restaurant and tavern, or even as an apartment complex.

The Fallon has been condemned by the city.

It closed in 2017, when the boiler stopped functioning.

Up to that point, it was mostly a boarding house, with its bar opened occasionally, mostly for college students to frequent.

It has remained closed since, its front door boarded up, the red bricks fading, window sills rotting and, from what we’re told, the one thing that protects the interior — the roof — leaks and is in trouble.

City Codes Enforcement Officer Cindi Walker said findings from inspections that led to the condemnation-vacancy order show “falling ceilings, visible mold, wet areas, exposed electrical devices, buckling floors, broken and inoperable windows, potential structural issues, corroded inoperable plumbing, unsafe dryer venting and a deteriorating chimney.”

Those issues are not cosmetic.

Florida resident Carey Chisolm of C&Q Investment Properties LLC, would like to return The Fallon to its former glory.

We applaud that desire, but please allow us to be skeptical.

How much money are we talking about to fully bring the building back to “glory?”

With all that needs to be done — including fixing structural issues — is it not a “money pit?”

Where’s the liquor license?

Why no mention of that?

Who owns the license?

What kind of business plan has been done to support the idea that a new Fallon Hotel can make money?

The city has condemned the building for very good reasons.

It is doing its job of protecting the public interest — and safety.

Its code enforcement actions also help to protect and stabilize the market value of properties nearby.

We applaud Mr. Chisholm for hiring an engineer to assess the building. We look forward to hearing if that assessment — and his willingness and capability to invest huge sums of money — gives us hope.

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