Someone targeted a door on the back side of the building. The smoke from the fire went inside the building and under the floor boards — enough to push through to Big Willie’s Smokehouse, which is connected to the Douglas.
Urbana Fire Chief Dean Ortlieb said it’s too early to tell if it’s the same person or a group of people setting the fires, but the frequency at which they’re happening is concerning.
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“We’re going to commit all of our resources, along with the city to try to prevent this from happening again,” he said.
The fires have hit at the same time that community partners are working on a plan to redevelop the Douglas Inn into affordable senior housing.
In September, city and county officials said the developer of the project was facing one final financial hurdle in order to push the project forward.
The project, called ‘Legacy Place’ would convert the Douglas Hotel, as well as the former North and South Elementary Schools in Urbana, into senior apartments.
Legacy Place would create 51 housing units available to residents 55 and older. Of those units, 20 would be in the Douglas Hotel with retail on the first floor and the rest of the units would be housed in the elementary schools.
The developer, Flaherty and Collins submitted a grant application for at least $500,000 to the Affordable Housing Program of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, and the awards of this grant will be announced next month.
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The Douglas takes up nearly an entire corner of Monument Square, so when the fire broke out on Friday morning businesses who share an occupancy also suffered.
Bill Curtis, the owner of Big Willie’s Smokehouse said he had to adjust catering orders for this weekend, because of the smoke damage to his storefront and kitchen.
On Friday, restoration crews from CRDN were at Big Willie’s cleaning up.
“This is it for me. This is how I make my living,” Curtis said. “I don’t have a nine-to-five and cater on the weekends. This is us.”
He is expected to be back up-and-running by Tuesday, but the string of fires has put him and his staff under a lot of stress.
Curtis was coming into the business on Friday morning when he saw the fire and called 9-1-1.
“(The flames) were all the way at the fire escape. I’m gonna say that’s roughly 20 feet and they were just roaring out of the space,” he said. “It’s very terrifying.”
The fire department said they are taking other preventive steps, but did not want to disclose them as not to tip off the person or persons responsible.
3 — Suspicious fires set at the Douglas in last two months
16 — Years Douglas Inn has been vacant
$9M — Tax credits already awarded to turn Douglas into senior housing
The Springfield News-Sun has extensively covered the Douglas Inn building in Urbana including residents’ concerns about the aging building, a plan to transform it into senior housing and most recently — a string of suspicious fires that puts the building in jeopardy.
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