New Gary mayor wants hotel near City Hall razed

GARY, Ind. — The new mayor of Gary wants a 12-story hotel that once was a symbol of a hoped-for downtown revival to be torn down, and she’s looking for someone to do it for free.

The Post-Tribune reports Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said Tuesday that the 135-room hotel next door to City Hall will be torn down and turned into a park. The former Sheraton Hotel was closed in the mid-1980s.

Former Mayor Rudy Clay had said recently the old hotel was asbestos-free and worth about $1 million.

Freeman-Wilson says she is “signing up” volunteer contractors willing to demolish the hotel for free. She says about 10 companies have been approached. She says the hotel could also be ripe for a Hollywood filmmaker in need of a building to implode.