Demolition begins on troubled Orange Park hotel

Site to be home to new Wawa convenience store by next summer

ORANGE PARK, Fla. – A hotel that was a hot spot for crime until it was closed down by a judge last year is in the process of being demolished in Orange Park.

The back of the Parkway Inn property on Park Avenue has been gated off for a few months and some demolition in that area is already complete.

The owners of the hotel, which was formerly known as the Rodeway Inn, battled with the Town of Orange Park after the property was declared a nuisance by the Town Council and ordered to close.

The town eventually won in court and a judge sided with the council's assessment that the hotel was a nuisance because of crime and prostitution.

The property will eventually be the home of a new Wawa convenience store, which is planned to open in Summer 2018.

The change is one of many coming to that stretch of U.S. 17 just south of I-295.

New hotels are also going in across the street, and another hotel was converted into an assisted living facility. A new 4 Rivers Smokehouse also opened in the area, and the Department of Transportation is looking into a changing the traffic pattern to help congestion in the corridor.


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Scott is a multi-Emmy Award Winning Anchor and Reporter, who also hosts the “Going Ringside With The Local Station” Podcast. Scott has been a journalist for 25 years, covering stories including six presidential elections, multiple space shuttle launches and dozens of high-profile murder trials.