Merlin’S Days Numbered? Condemnation Hearing Scheduled Amid Health And Safety Violations At Downtown Apartments

Almost every night, a cast of drug dealers and prostitutes fills the Merlin Apartments, police say.

But the party may be ending. City officials are demanding a housecleaning at the 90-year-old downtown building.

Deluged by complaints from fire inspectors, police and health and code enforcement officers, the city building official is considering closing the three-story building at W. 29 Second.

A hearing on possible condemnation is scheduled June 2.

Police say the Merlin has replaced West First as a marketplace for sex, heroin and “crack” cocaine.

“We’re a trigger event away from a tragedy,” said police officer Rick Albin.

Residents complain that sewage drips down walls. Dead cockroaches cluster in the only bathtub on the second floor. Its handles are missing, a stream of cold water running down the drain.

Outside, bricks are known to crumble from the roof, falling onto cars. Used syringes litter the parking lot.

“We found the building and its premises to be dangerous and potentially injurious,” Paul Savage, an inspector with the Spokane Regional Health District, wrote following a May 11 inspection.

“We recommend the building be demolished or rehabilitated as soon as possible.”

The building is a firetrap, others say. Drifts of clothes are piled atop flammable chemicals in the basement.

“If a fire starts on the lower floors, the fire escape is essentially unusable” for upper-floor residents, said Rich Leonhardt, city fire inspector.

Requests for many improvements have been ignored, fire and police officials said.

The building is owned by Gary and Sheri McDonnell of Elk, and Ronald and Diane Sterling of Spokane. They bought the Merlin for $600,000 in 1994, according to county tax records.

The McDonnells and Sterlings previously owned the Delmar, another downtown apartment building with a checkered past. After years of health and safety violations, it was shut down by Fire Marshal Garry Miller in 1995.

On Tuesday, the McDonnells did not return phone calls. Diane Sterling referred inquiries to her son, Sean, who she said was managing the building.

He said immediate improvements would be made to comply with fire and health codes. He said he already has made other improvements, as requested by city officials.

“I’m not thrilled about what’s going on at this point,” Sean Sterling said. “In 30 days, it’ll all be fixed and everyone will forget it’s happened.”

Living conditions in the building aren’t that bad, he said. “I think it’s being blown out of proportion. I don’t think it’s too far off your standard downtown building.”

Building Official Bob Eugene could shutter the Merlin at next month’s hearing if he finds the landlords were negligent enough to endanger their tenants.

But Eugene prefers requiring rehabilitation of the turn-of-the-century building. Condemnation would force too many low-income people out on the streets.

“My bias is toward preservation” of the low-income residential buildings, he said.

Neighbors say the families living in the Merlin need immediate attention.

Lawrence Hudson, pastor of neighboring First Covenant Church, said he worries about the children living there.

One of them, 13-year-old Joey, was seen inside one day last month. He was playing a video game in an area littered with broken glass. He didn’t go to school. His mother was asleep, he said.

Said Hudson: “The hardest thing for me about the Merlin is it makes me feel like the kids there don’t have a chance. They are the quintessential definition of kids at risk.”