The Municipality of Anchorage has officially taken the Golden Lion Hotel off the tax rolls, by purchasing it for $9.3 million.
The hotel, located at 36th Avenue and New Seward Highway, will become the Alaska Center for Treatment, focusing on services for alcoholics, according to the acting mayor.
The Acting Mayor’s Office said the repairs on the buildings will be funded using $15 million from the sale of ML&P to Church Electric, making the overall capital investment as much as $24 million. A request for proposal will be issued for someone to run the center.
The hotel is part of three properties the city is purchasing to provide a suite of services to homeless, vagrants, and substance addicted persons in Anchorage, a plan that started under Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and that is continuing under Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson. Other buildings to be purchased are America’s Best Value Inn & Suites in Spenard, which has 100 rooms that are to be used to house homeless, and also has office space for an expanding workforce of social service employees.
The municipality doesn’t seem to have a plan for how to pay for the operations and maintenance of the new Alaska center for Treatment, which has been the subject of extensive protests by citizens throughout the summer and fall.
