Savage may have to help Quality Inn residents find new homes if city buys hotel

Last month we told you how the city of Savage is hoping to buy the Quality Inn Hotel on Highway 13 after the property has had a lot of run-ins with law enforcement and complaints from neighbors.

State law may require the city to provide financial relocation assistance for those who are currently using the hotel as their permanent residence.

Lon Smith has lived at the hotel for the last year.

“It would be nice if they put me up someplace for a while, but it would help me out pocketbook-wise if they did that,” Smith said. “Things happen you just have to put up with it. You got nothing to say about it.”

Savage has hired a relocation assistance firm to help the city find out how many people live in the hotel and how much it would cost to find them a new home. Under the law, the city must provide comparable living situations for where they are now.

We reached out to the owner of the hotel for this story, but he didn’t want to speak. The city of Savage says the price tag to buy the hotel is around $4 million.