PETERSBURG, Va. — Petersburg is demolishing the last of four hotels that once stood at the Washington-Wythe Street gateway to the city from Interstate 95.
Since the 1970s, hotels sat on all four corners of the intersection, which sees more than 100,000 cars pass through every day. Over the last two decades, the properties became blighted.
"It has not been a good situation," Wilbert Bland Jr., a local businessman, said.
"Those structures were havens for undesirable behavior. Folks that were not doing any benefit to our city or to our citizens," Petersburg Deputy City Manager Kenneth Miller said.
The most notorious of the four, the old Ramada, came down at the end of 2022. Now, the last hotel on a corner is meeting the same fate.
"I really think it's a great move for the city. We're going in the right direction," Bland said.
"Knocking down this property tells us and shows us one more thing we're doing in the city to make the city transform," Miller said.
Crews spent Monday morning knocking down the old restaurant building on the property. A large crane is due later this week to begin taking down the five-story hotel. The demolition carries a price tag of nearly $1 million.
"This comes from grants, not from taxpayer dollars," Miller said.
The demolition comes as the city is seeing record numbers of building permits. Thirty years ago, the city averaged about two permits for new houses per year.
"Now we'll do 200 houses this year," Howie Hines, Petersburg building official, said.
Overall building permits have also grown significantly.
"Our [building] permits have gone from a couple hundred to a couple thousand permits a year," Hines said.
For lifelong resident Bland, the changes signal a broader shift for the city.
"I think the future for Petersburg, we are just beginning, that's what I really think. With the casino, with the improvements they are doing in Downtown Petersburg," Bland said. "I think that we're on the way, on the right track."
With the four corners of the gateway soon to be clear, more change could be coming within the next decade. Plans are being discussed with VDOT for a major overhaul of how cars exit the interstate in Petersburg.
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