Kirby Coleman, a machine operator with Lumberton’s Public Works Department, tears through a portion of the Ramada Inn on Thursday. Demolition began ahead of time on the abandoned 73,000-square-foot hotel on Kahn Drive that was built in the early 1970s.
Project on Kahn Drive starts ahead of time
A significant portion of the Ramada Inn on Kahn Drive in Lumberton was turned into rubble Thursday by Lumberton Public Works Department employees. Crews were ahead of schedule on the demolition job, which was scheduled to begin Monday.
Armstrong
LUMBERTON — Lumberton City Public Works employees began tearing down the abandoned Ramada Inn on Thursday.
“We are about two business days ahead of our original start date, which was Monday, Jan. 25,” Lumberton City Public Works Director Rob Armstrong said.
Public Works intended to demolish the 73,000-square-foot hotel built in 1974 by using three crews — drainage, sewer and street — at the same time, he said.
“However, our drainage crew completed their work that they were doing, so we moved them in ahead of schedule this morning,” Armstrong said.
The Public Works director is unsure how long the demolition project at 3608 Kahn Drive will take.
“It’s hard to say. We made good progress today, but even when we have all three crews on site we won’t have but about five trucks hauling. I think we will have the entire building on the ground as a pile of rubble next week, but it may take us a couple months, working on and off sometimes, to haul it all away,” Armstrong said.
It took about three to four weeks to remove asbestos from the building before demolition could begin, Lumberton City Manager Wayne Horne said. Issues like sewer cave-ins at the site also delayed demolition.
The former hotel, which can be seen from Interstate 95 and Roberts Avenue, has been abandoned since it was flooded during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. It was condemned in September 2020.
Robeson County businessman Harry Jhala has owned the property since 2012. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
But in 2019 he said the plan was to first elevate the property after demolition was complete. He must meet city and Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines for elevating property in a flood plain before he can build.
Jhala also said in 2019 that he and his partner in the project, Mangesh Patel, owner of Karma Developers LLC in Atlanta, were planning to use a bank loan to build hotels and restaurants on the land.
The plan was to divide the land into three tracts: one tract for restaurants, and each of the other two for a multi-story hotel.
