City of Cheyenne condemns Hitching Post Inn

In a letter sent Friday to owner Dipalie Jariwalla, Chief Building Official Blas Hernandez said a Thursday inspection of the property found the structure “unfit for human habitation” and impractical to repair.

He added that the hotel, which has sat shuttered since September 2017, has become “a nuisance to the community” and “dangerous to public safety,” a statement backed up by police reports of trespassing and other minor infractions in the past year.

Jariwalla, who is based in New Jersey, declined to comment on the condemnation Monday afternoon, saying she hadn’t seen the letter.

Once Jariwalla receives the letter, she’ll have 20 days to file an appeal with the city.

The hotel was once a center of Cheyenne society and an informal dormitory to state legislators during winter sessions away from home, but it’s been repeatedly humbled in the last decade.

The hotel filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and a fire destroyed its front building in 2010. In 2013, a partner in a new ownership group pleaded guilty to arson in connection with the latter fiasco, and two years later, the then-owner pleaded guilty to insurance fraud.

And ever since water service and power were cut off in fall 2017, Mayor Marian Orr has made leveling the place a top priority.

For months, she tried to partner with Jariwalla to demolish the asbestos-laden structure, telling the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in July that covering a fourth of the estimated $3 million demolition would be fine.

Then, in October, she publicly threatened to take the property by eminent domain.

But on Monday, Orr said the first approach was impractical, and the second would take too long.

“People have once again broken into the buildings,” she said. “That is posing a hazard to our police force, our residents and visitors to our Ice and Events Center. We need this gone now.”

She acknowledged the steep upfront cost, but said the council would be on board, especially since the city could recoup some money down the road through a forced sale or foreclosure.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be made whole,” she said, “but I believe that there is certainly some appetite to spend money from reserves to clean up an area that would be ripe for redevelopment and tax revenues.”

Correction: A previous version of this story said the Hitching Post's owner had 30 days to demolish the hotel due to an error in the condemnation letter the city sent the owner.