ORANGE PARK, Fla. – People living in the Parkway Inn must be out be Friday after Circuit Judge Michael Sharrit ordered earlier this month for the Orange Park hotel that was declared a nuisance by the Town Council to close.
Last December, the town of Orange Park's Nuisance and Abatement Board voted to close the Rodeway Inn, located on U.S. 17 just south of Interstate 295, because of ongoing crime issues. The board determined the hotel had not done enough to fix the crime problem after both sides previously agreed on a plan to improve the hotel.
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The judge had to to sign off on an order to close the Rodeway Inn, which has since changed its name to the Parkway Inn, since the town did not have legal authority to shut it down without approval from a judge.
In his ruling, Sharrit ordered the Jax Inns Inc. operating as Rodeway Inn at 300 Park Ave., closed effective July 1 and continuing through Dec. 31.
The hotel has been a hot spot for crime in Orange Park for years. Things got so bad in September 2015 that the hotel agreed to a plan to stop crime in the hotel by doing things like implementing security and getting identification for all guests so that information would be readily available to law enforcement officers.