The Block hotel changes hands with plans to reopen

By Kathryn Reed

The Block, the infamous one-time snowboarder hotel near Stateline, is going to open its doors again.

The San Francisco-based owners have obtained a building permit from South Lake Tahoe to renovate the rooms, put on a new roof, and bring things up to code.

A fire damaged the roof in September when heat tape and pine needles came into contact with each other.

The Block hotel in South Lake Tahoe is being renovated. Photo/LTN

“The lobby and a couple of the rooms will be brought up to ADA standards. Overall it is a minor fix it to get the place open,” Hilary Roverud, director of Development Services, told Lake Tahoe News.

The owners, operating under the name 4143 SLT LLC, did not return multiple calls. The address of the hotel is 4143 Cedar Ave.

The 50-room hotel used to be two hotels. In 2003, they were consolidated into one.

Eneliko “Sean” Smith had owned The Block and Cedar Lodge hotels, but lost both to creditors. BMR Funding LLC took over The Block and First Credit Bank owns Cedar Lodge.

Smith was in and out of court for failing to pay the city the hotel tax.

“We have not been paid the back TOT taxes,” City Attorney Patrick Enright told Lake Tahoe News.

Smith is supposed to pay $500 month, but hasn’t paid a dime. The total he owes is $134,000.

It is not known when the new hotel will open or if the name is staying the same.

Owners have called the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, but no one has submitted an application.

“What they would have to pay would depend on what they would propose to do at the hotel. At a minimum there would be an air quality mitigation fee,” Kristi Boosman, TRPA spokeswoman, told Lake Tahoe News.

She added that the owner mentioned to TRPA staff about putting in bike-pedestrian walkways or electric charging stations in order to reduce those air mitigation fees, but with no paperwork being submitted, the TRPA doesn’t know what the hotel owners want to  or will do.