Judge: Dixon’s Magnuson Hotel must remain closed

DIXON – The Magnuson Hotel in Dixon, closed down by a judge’s ruling in October, will remain closed under a permanent injunction issued Monday in Lee County Circuit Court.

Lee County Circuit Court Judge Douglas Lee made that ruling against Bahaveshbhai Kalani, the Magnuson Hotel’s owner, Monday at the end of a three-hour hearing that included testimony from Dixon Rural Fire Chief Dustin Dahlstrom, inspectors from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office and an environmental services company and Lee County Health Department’s administrator.

At issue was a list of safety code violations that the Dixon Rural Fire Department said has been observed at the hotel at 443 Illinois Route 2 over the last several years.

The hotel’s condition has been a focus of the Dixon Rural Fire Department since 2021. Dahlstrom became Dixon Rural’s chief in January, picking up on the Magnuson where former Chief Sid Aurand left off. Recent discussions about the hotel’s condition have heated up over the past few months, with an agreement reached earlier this year that any violations were to be corrected. Subsequent walk-throughs, one of which included video recording of the hotel, led Dahlstrom to order the closure due to lack of repairs and Kalani’s subsequent refusal to close the hotel to guests.

Following Dahlstrom’s closure, Lee ruled in October that a temporary injunction would be put in place to keep the hotel closed to residents. The hotel was to remain closed under that ruling while Kalani worked to remedy life-safety code violations. Kalani was also told he could not live there.

Kalani said in October that the building was in worse condition when he bought it in 2017, and he has spent $900,000 improving the property over the past seven years, increasing the number of rental rooms and fixing violations. He also has said different inspectors gave him conflicting information, and early problems that were not cited as violations years ago are now being listed as violations.

At issue Monday was whether the closure should remain in place, and, specifically, if the building’s violations rise to the level of posing an imminent threat of bodily harm.

Under questioning by Lee County Assistant State’s Attorney Stephanie Sasscer, Dahlstrom said the conditions were such that the building should remain closed, reiterating the life safety violations he saw while walking through the Magnuson.

Among them are areas of partially collapsed walls and ceilings, holes in the walls that would allow fire to spread and hanging wires.

“It’s not in the best interest of the community to let people into that building,” Dahlstrom said, adding that firefighters who could be called to a fire there also would be put at greater risk due to the conditions.

Jeffrey Horner, an inspector with the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office, inspected the property in October at the request of the Dixon Rural Fire Department. Horner went through his report line by line to explain what he had found.

That list included improper storage of flammable liquids, rooms that had been turned into storage areas that did not have proper fire suppression, no notification systems for hearing-impaired occupants should a fire break out, lack of documentation of required inspections such as for boiler and sprinkler systems, smoke alarms that were 30 to 40 years old, and an attempt to close off the first floor between the east and west wings that Horner deemed unacceptable.

“It’s about keeping people safe and preventing injury and death,” he said of the need to meet code. “If it’s not followed, people die.”

Sasscer asked Lee to order that the hotel remain closed until all federal, state and local code violations are remedied.

However Kalani’s attorney, Thomas A. Whitecombe, said no one who testified spoke to the imminent danger the listed violations posed to occupants. He said more clarity is needed to define which violations are enough to prevent it from reopening. He argued that not having inspections does not pose a life safety risk.

Another issue was how Kalani was using the east and west wings. He was renting out only the west wing because the east wing required work. Whitecombe questioned whether a dryer fire in the east wing would affect anyone in the west wing.

Lee agreed more clarity is needed as to which violations rise to the level of forcing closure to prevent imminent bodily harm.

“I’m a judge, not a fire chief,” Lee said.

For him, he said, the risk posed by having open walls and collapsed ceilings that could exacerbate a fire was a reason to keep it closed. He said those must be fixed. After that, Lee said, Kalani can go back to the fire chief to see what more needs to be done.