Plans for the demolition of a historic hotel in Lake Elsinore that a nonprofit had hoped to restore to serve the community are on hold pending legal challenges, it was announced Tuesday.
The city of Lake Elsinore had obtained a court order authorizing deconstruction of the four-story Ambassador Hotel at the corner of Main and East Prospect streets, but attorneys for Dream Center Lake Elsinore filed an appeal challenging the Riverside County Superior Court public nuisance abatement order, bringing all demolition activity to an immediate stop Friday.
“This building isn’t just any property; it’s a deeply significant part of our city’s history,” Dream Center Executive Director Brett Masters said in a social media message. “We have carried the vision to see it restored and re-purposed as a residential discipleship center, a place of healing and transformation and hope.”
According to a city statement released Tuesday, the Ambassador, constructed in 1887, has “65 substandard, illegal and dangerous conditions” that meet the definition of blight, warranting elimination of the dilapidated structure.
“Those conditions led the building to be red-tagged, meaning it is unsafe to occupy until the hazards are corrected,” according to the Lake Elsinore Office of Economic Development. “The city initiated a lawsuit against the former owner to remedy the violations. The Dream Center purchased the property in 2021 with full knowledge of these … dangerous conditions and the lawsuit.”
According to officials, Masters and his associates entered into a compliance agreement, specifying that the Dream Center would take corrective action to address all of the deficiencies.
“Five years later, the Ambassador Hotel building has not been brought into compliance and has further deteriorated,” the city stated, publishing photographs showing the interior and exterior in a state of disrepair.
However, nothing directly revealed the brick-and-mortar building to be structurally unsound.
“We have worked hard to be good stewards,” Masters said. “We maintained a safe and clean site. We’ve diligently pursued every requirement laid out to us in order to move forward with restoration. However, in March 2024, after meeting the initial requirements, the city introduced an entirely new set of permitting expectations that effectively halted our progress.”
He said efforts to find a mutually acceptable “path forward” led nowhere and during the winter, the city recommenced legal actions intended to clear the way for demolition, “and hold the Dream Center financially responsible for the cost of demolition and related fees.”
The conflict culminated in a hearing last month in which a Superior Court judge granted the municipality’s request take the necessary steps to abate the public nuisance.
Masters said after the Dream Center’s attorneys filed an appeal with a request for a temporary injunction halting all removal work at the Ambassador, crews showed up last week with tools in hand and started the process anyway.
“We haven’t seen a demolition permit,” he said.
He asked for community prayers and support.
“Friends, this is an intense moment for all of us. It’s honestly heartbreaking,” the pastor said. “But we’re not shaken in our faith. Even if the physical building is lost, our calling is not. God has called us to be ambassadors in this city.”
Lake Elsinore officials denied that the city had acted in bad faith in legal proceedings.
“Building, fire, occupancy, property maintenance and health-and-safety laws exist to prevent tragedy — not respond to it after someone has been injured or killed,” the city said. “The city cannot knowingly allow dangerous conditions to continue because enforcement is unpopular, or because an organization occupying a property performs valued work.”
The statement concluded that “this is not a choice between compassion and enforcement. It is about protecting people.”
The plot occupied by the building is a choice spot, less than a quarter-mile from the lakeshore.
There was no word on upcoming hearings.
Information about the Dream Center is available at www.dreamcenterle.org/. The city’s web portal can be found at www.lake-elsinore.org/.