COUNCIL POISED TO ACQUIRE, DEMOLISH DUNES MOTOR HOTEL PURCHASE WOULD BE FIRST IN ATTEMPT TO CLEAR OUT LOW-RENT ROOMS DOWNTOWN.

Byline: Jim Skeen  Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Lancaster city officials have reached a tentative agreement to buy and close the Dunes Motor Hotel, one of two low-rent hotels they consider blights and magnets for crime.

The City Council is expected to vote Tuesday night on a proposed $600,000 offer for the 43-room, 11,630-square-foot hotel at 521 W. Jackman Avenue.

``Overall, the condition of the hotel is very poor,'' Stafford Parker, Lancaster's redevelopment agency director, said in a staff report. ``The most realistic future for the building, taking into consideration its age and condition, is to demolish it.''

Lancaster officials said they are still negotiating for the Lancaster Lodge Hotel at 44820 Date Ave. They said there is a history of law-enforcement problems at both properties.

Major crime included a March 1990 slaying of a homeless man by three residents of the Lancaster Lodge, authorities said. The victim was shot, stabbed and then run over by a car in what authorities called a drug deal gone bad.

Attempts by city officials to acquire the hotels date back at least to 1985. Attempts were launched again after potential investors commented in 1995 that they considered the hotels damaging to property values in Lancaster's downtown area.

At that time, officials said the city Redevelopment Agency did not have the financial resources to acquire the hotels, city officials said. Earlier this year, about $1.5 million was budgeted to buy both.

The council, sitting as the Redevelopment Agency board, will consider the proposed Dunes purchase during a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers, 44933 Fern Ave.