Lakeview Motel's Date with the Wrecking Ball Under Way

It’s finally coming down. 

The grin on Plainfield Building Official Dean Marquez's face spread from ear to ear as he watched a bulldozer rip hunks of roof from the old Lakeview Motel on Thursday morning. 

“It’s been an eyesore for years,” Marquez said. 

The 60-year-old Lakeview Motel, located at U.S. 30 and Renwick Road, was destroyed by a fire last September.

In the days before chain motels and interstates, for that matter, it had been a mainstay of people driving cross country on the old Lincoln Highway. In recent years, however, it had become a transient motel with people booking inexpensive rooms that could be rented by the day or week.

Marquez condemned the motel and all but one of its outbuildings not long after the fire and it was slated for the wrecking ball on Feb. 2. But owner Piyush Patel, who is paying for the demolition, got a stay from courts until Feb. 24, village officials say. 

It will probably take a couple of days to completely raze the motel, a two-story house and a mobile home that have been condemned, Marquez said. The only remaining two-story house is likely to be condemned as well, he said. 

Patel, of Bolingbrook, was not on the scene Thursday morning. Village officials have handled negotiations through his attorney and engineer, Marquez said. 

The property has been zoned residential, but will be rezoned commercial regardless of whether a new motel goes up or not, village officials have said. According to the most recent information, Patel is considering building another structure on the site, Marquez said.