Council wants information on future of Quality Inn

  The City Council wants some answers about the future of the empty Quality Inn at 100 Morris Street.

  The hotel has been largely out of operation since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, other than being used as a Covid quarantine site during the early days of the pandemic. More recently, last year city officials worked to stop the city of Boston’s plans to use the Quality Inn to house the homeless from the Mass and Cass area of Boston.

  At Monday night’s meeting, the council supported a motion from Ward 6 Councillor Richard Serino and Councillor-At-Large Dan Rizzo to discuss the status of the property known as the Quality Inn with the Mayor, Inspector of Buildings, City Solicitor, License Commission, City Planner Frank Stringi, and/or the new Community Development Director.

  “I’ve been thinking about this every time I drive by there and there is this empty parking lot,” said Rizzo. “You’ve got this big building standing there, and the last time it was used was to house people who had Covid and subsequent to that, it was rumored to house the homeless and addicted from Mass and Cass.”

  A recent Boston Globe article highlighted a trend of empty hotels being used to house the homeless in other communities in the state, Rizzo said.

  “I understand that we have a problem with homelessness, and I don’t know necessarily if the Revere City Council is going to solve that problem,” said Rizzo. “But what we can do is at least have a conversation with our planning department to see what this valuable piece of property is going to be going forward. I think we need to get ahead of it a little bit before something just gets dropped in our lap like it did the last time.”

  Rizzo said the residents who live near the Quality Inn also would like to know what is going to happen with the property.

  The Quality Inn used to be a good neighbor and an asset to the neighborhood, said Serino.

  “When I was first elected, I think one of the first things I did was give a certificate of appreciation to the manager of the Quality Inn,” said Serino.   “Before I was elected, and before Covid, the Quality Inn was used by residents as a meeting place and they were wonderful. When they did shut down at the beginning of Covid, the Quality Inn donated the food in their kitchen to the city’s food pantry because they had to close their operation and did not know when they would reopen.”

  After that, Serino said things began to go downhill, with the hotel shuttered and then the potential use of the hotel to house the homeless from Mass and Cass.

  In February, the Quality Inn was before the License Commission for a renewal of its innkeeper’s license.

  “I asked the License Commission not to renew the innkeeper’s license because it had not been utilized as a hotel for close to two years at that point,” said Serino. “However, to the manager at the time’s credit, he came before the License Commission and explained how they wanted to reopen and be a community partner again and gave a whole wonderful spiel that really amounted to nothing.”

  More recently this summer, Serino said the Quality Inn began using its parking lot like a park and fly operation to Logan Airport before being shut down by the city.

  “I have to be honest; I am very disappointed in the Quality Inn because they were such a great community partner for my first year as a member of this council and a good neighbor to this neighborhood,” said Serino. “But as time goes on, it is going to become decrepit and god only knows if people haven’t been staying there in over a year what the condition of the hotel itself is.”