The citizens of Anchorage now own a 23-room motel and former strip club.
The municipality has taken the deed to the property located at 2037 E. Fifth Avenue, across from Merrill Field, after failing to get more than three years' worth of property taxes -- $34,621 -- from the property's owner, Terry Stahlman. As of this week, both the Big Timber Motel and the adjacent building, once home to the Showboat Show Club strip club, now belong to the Municipality of Anchorage, and local officials are trying to figure out what to do with the property and the people who currently live there. Notes posted on the doors say the city moved to take control of the property on Dec. 16, 2013. But Terry Stahlman, who bought the property nine years ago, claims he still owns it.
Anchorage officials said they inspected the building on Tuesday and found it unsafe for habitation. The heat was turned off after Stahlman failed to pay Enstar for the buildings' gas bills, and the rooms are infested with bedbugs, voles and mice, according to the city. Lindsey Whitt, communications director for Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, said the municipality is working with Catholic Social Services, the Brother Francis Shelter and other groups to find a place for the residents, including nine children, one of whom is only two weeks old. None of the current residents have been asked to move out, Whitt said, and no one will be thrown out of the rundown building before other living arrangements can be made.
"Morally, we can't do that," Whitt said.
She added that the municipality plans to help residents find other places to live, then begin to figure out what to do with the property. Despite having had no heat for months, the water pipes are still intact, and the building is structurally sound. But getting it up to code could be a costly endeavor.
"The bedbug problem could be especially costly," Whitt said.
In one of the motel's rooms, 27-year old Sonya Savok sat nursing Emerald, her 18-day-old daughter. Her two other children, 2-year-old Nevaeh and 4-year-old Ruby sat on the floor in the bedroom, watching cartoons. Savok lives in the tiny apartment with her three children and her brother. Despite relying on portable electric heaters for warmth and tolerating less than ideal living conditions, the building remains appealing for Savok. Her two-room apartment contains a working eight-person hot tub -- a remnant of the building's more sordid past during the building of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
"I have a swimming pool," Savok's daughter, Ruby, said.
For her part, Savok doesn't want to leave the motel, where she pays about $850 per month in rent.
"I was living in my car before," Savok said. "I'm just grateful to have a roof over my head."
Stahlman said he has been in very poor health over the past three years, which required extensive stays in a local hospital. Stahlman claimed he has never been served with papers by the municipality about his unpaid property tax bill, which he originally estimated to be $47,000. Enstar turned off the gas -- which was the building's main source of heat -- a month ago, Stahlman said, because he couldn't afford to pay $10,000 in overdue bills. Stahlman said he has supplied portable electric heaters to all the residents and has listed the property for sale. The municipality says the building is not an immediate danger to its residents but that it is unsafe to heat rooms with portable electric heaters. It has installed smoke detectors in all the rooms.
Stahlman claimed he wants to sell the building, find everyone who lives there a new home, pay the municipality off, and possibly move to Fairbanks. Stahlman owns the Showboat strip club and an adjacent bar -- the 49er Club -- in Fairbanks.
Stahlman has long been a notable, if not always well-liked, Anchorage businessman. He said he bought the property and adjacent strip club nine years ago for about $800,000. In May, 2010, Stahlman made news when he used the property to put up bail for Mechele Linehan, who was convicted in the 1996 murder of Kent Leppink, appealed, and eventually had all charges against her dropped. In March 2012, Stahlman also offered the properties to anyone who might have information about the disappearance of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig. No one claimed the reward. Koenig was killed by Israel Keyes, a serial killer who took his own life at the Anchorage jail while awaiting trial for Koenig's murder. Stahlman said he had to close the strip club -- which is adjacent to the motel -- in August 2013 because the municipality kept raiding it.
"(The municipality) hated that place," Stahlman said.
Through it all, Stahlman continued to keep the deed to the property and insists he own it.
"The city is wrong. They don't own this place," Stahlman said. He added, "I don't have a lawyer yet, but I'm going to get one."
The ultimate goal for the municipality is to find a buyer and recoup the property taxes and repair costs.
"The Municipality of Anchorage doesn't want to be a landlord. We want to sell the land," Whitt said.
Contact Sean Doogan at sean@alaskadispatch.com.
Correction: This story originally reported that the property taxes owed were approximately $40,000. It has been updated with the specific total.