Tuscaloosa Orders Demolition of Former Motel 6 on McFarland

The Tuscaloosa City Council has ordered the demolition of a shuttered motel they say has long been a public nuisance, setting the stage for more future development on McFarland Boulevard.

In a 6-1 vote on Tuesday, the council resolved that the former Motel 6 at 4700 McFarland Boulevard East is "unsafe to the extent that it is a public nuisance" and ordered its demolition.

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The property was a Motel 6 until November 2021, when it reportedly lost its franchise rights and began renting rooms under a different name. That ended in June 2022, when the city council unanimously voted to permanently revoke their business license.

During the debate leading to that decision, city officials said many spaces had mold, water leaks, rotting wood supporting dangerous balconies, unclean mattresses, and padlocks on the exterior of some room doors.

The hotel was also allegedly the site of numerous criminal activities, with the city reporting 695 police responses to the property between May 2019 and February 2022. Longtime readers may remember a tense armed standoff between a burglary suspect and Tuscaloosa's Special Response Team a few years ago.

After the license was revoked, condemnation proceedings were underway, but the owners then leased the property to "Skyland Hotels, LLC" to repair and restore it to a safe, clean, habitable condition.

Cam Parsons, an attorney with the LLC and its current operator, Teddy Li, said they have invested almost $700,000 in repairs and renovations to the hotel since Spring 2025.

Parsons requested a 30-day extension in the condemnation proceedings, but Cassius Lanier, the city councilman representing the district where the hotel is located, urged his peers not to grant it.

Lanier said the 2023 ownership change appeared to be for show and that the new lessees were friends of the owners. He said little work has been done in the last few years, except for a flurry of activity as the vote approached.

"My problem is I don't have a lot of confidence in the property owner," Lanier said during the Tuesday meeting. "You're putting lipstick on a pig, to me. I don't see you doing a little remodeling. This place needs to be pushed down."

Lanier was backed by Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley, who was a vocal proponent years ago for stripping the business license.

"My feelings are known on this. I do not stand up here on many properties and ask you to condemn, but this owner has had this property for some time, and it's just when it comes up for condemnation that something wants to be done with it," Blankley said. "I believe what you're going to see with this property is the same thing that's been at this property for 20 years. The citizens around this property deserve better than what is there now. It is a constant problem for drugs and other activities. It is not good for the city of Tuscaloosa."

Virgil Williams, the city's Chief Property Maintenance Inspector, sided with Parsons and Li and said that, given their progress on repairs to previously dangerous balconies, he would recommend granting them additional time to return the buildings to code.

The council, however, listened to Lanier and Chief Blankley; they voted 6-1 to condemn and demolish the hotel property. Only Lee Busby voted no, after he moved unsuccessfully to grant them 30 more days to make repairs.

Lanier celebrated the decision after the meeting.

"I feel like we're still achieving what we set out to do in this district. I said in my first term, we're going to tear down. Then we're going to build up brick by brick," Lanier told the Thread. "We've been pushing everything down, and this term we're about to get to building up. But we missed this one. We condemned it once, and they flipped their ownership, but I'm against letting a friend lease it out and just saying you've changed. Don't do that to me."

Li and Parsons will have the opportunity to challenge the decision in court, but the condemnation could lead to more future development in District 7 - already the home of Stan Pate's redevelopment of the McFarland Mall, a proposed shopping center to replace part of the Springbrook neighborhood and an extensive redevelopment of another shopping center in the district.

For more exclusive coverage of restaurant and retail development in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.