Downtowner to be shut down

The Downtowner Motor Inn will be shut down and residents will be relocated after the owner of the 34-room hotel had his business license revoked today.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors revoked the license from Ralph Ahmad for failing to pay room taxes.

The city will work on a plan to relocate the people living at the motel at the corner of North Carson and Washington streets, said City Manager Larry Werner and Developmental Services Director Walt Sullivan.

The people will not be immediately evicted, they said.

Ahmad lost his license in August for failing pay taxes and the business was scheduled to be taken over by the Shearer family.

Representatives for the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, which collects room taxes, said Ahmad has paid some taxes he owned, but nothing since August.

The motel is scheduled to be foreclosed and sold at an auction Dec. 9

Jesse James, a 22-year-old man who's lived at the Downtowner two months and workers there doing maintenance, said he's planning to join the circus soon, but said the move might be harder for families.

"There's a lot of kid's that won't have a place to stay," he said.

Another long-term resident, 56-year-old Gina Jones, said many saw this problem coming, but the move could be difficult for some.

She said she's sharing a room with a woman who's looking for a job and has a teenage son.

Many people living at the motel are staying long-term. The Downtowner business license says people cannot stay longer than a month.

The Downtowner re-opened in September 2007 after being shut down by the city in April 2005 under Ahmad's ownership for problems including sewage in living rooms.

Ahmad could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The 14,450-square-foot motel was built in 1962.