Parliament House

Parliament House Motor Hotel in its heyday. Courtesy Birmingham Public Library

The Parliament House Motor Hotel was an 11-story, 223-room hotel which occupied the west side of 20th Street South between 4th and 5th Avenues. The dramatically-modern $5 million structure was constructed in 1964 for a group of investors led by Lane Sellers and William D. Sellers, chairman of Baggett Transportation Company. The need for a large hotel in the emerging medical center was obvious and attracted an investment group that included actress Doris Day to lease and operate the planned facility. Brice Building Company commenced construction of the expressively-modern lightweight concrete structure in 1962.

Day's group, which would have named the building the Birmingham Cabana backed out during the nationally-televised racial tensions which marked the Civil rights movement in Birmingham. Instead Ned Eddy and his sons Ned, Jr and James of Kansas City purchased the hotel while it was under construction as the crown of their Parliament House chain, which also had locations in Orlando and Clearwater, Florida and Augusta Georgia. They gave the property an English royalty theme with the slogan, "Built for the House of Lords...priced for the House of Commons."

Half a million dollars was spend equipping the central kitchens with state-of-the-art stainless steel appliances and fixtures. Guest room telephones were among the first to feature direct room-to-room calling and a flashing message light. Higher-priced "Council Rooms" featured an in-room bar and two convertible beds that could be folded into sectional seating for social gatherings. The 11th floor featured a "Prime Minister's Suite"

In addition to guest rooms the hotel offered a swimming pool on a raised terrace, the Baron of Beef restaurant, two lounges (the Once a Knight and Baron's Cork Room), banquet and facilities for up to 800 diners, and a row of retail shops. Fred Batzinger, formerly of the Fontainebeau in Miami Beach, served as catering manager.

Until the completion of the Hyatt House at the BJCC, the Parliament House served as downtown's premiere contemporary hotel, hosting celebrities such as Richard Nixon and O. J. Simpson. The presence of the hotel spurred development of "The Strip", a row of restaurants and nightclubs across 20th street with Michael's, Rossi's, PJ's Lounge, and Emil's Cantina.

By 1965 Eddy's group was in financial straights and the operator declared bankruptcy. Lane and Sellers regained control and hired Tom Kelley to manage the property. When Sellers decided to leave the hotel business in 1972 the partners put the building up for sale. It was purchased for $4.5 million in June of that year by a group of Pensacola, Florida investors who incorporated as Alabama Parliament House, Inc. They kept Kelly on as manager and ran the hotel for two years until selling it to another Pensacola native, E. A. Gregory.

For nine months in late 1974 and early 1975 the hotel was managed by television personality Cliff Holman, who had been sales manager during Kelley's term. In January 1975 two waiters at the Baron of Beef shot each other to death, apparently while arguing over a $20 tip. Nevertheless, occupancy was high and the hotel seemed successful. Gregory had his own misfortunes, however, and put the hotel up for sale in 1977. He was later convicted in Mobile on nine counts of conspiracy involving the Wilcox County Bank at Camden. Meanwhile the new owner, Palmer G. O'Barr sought bankruptcy protection after only three months of owning the property. He was evicted by creditors in April and the building was once again on the market.

HJK Limited purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1978. A year later, HJK took out a loan from Morris Development Associates, a company owned by Gary E. Smith. When HJK defaulted, Smith formed City Hotels Limited to operate the hotel as the Holiday Inn-Medical Center, franchised from Holiday Inns of Memphis in 1980. In July 1982 City Hotels filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy a day after various utilities initiated suspension of service. Despite relatively high occupancy rates, the hotel had over $8 million in outstanding debt, including four mortgages. Accountants called in to review the books found haphazard money management, no records of frequent cash payments, and a closet-full of drink vouchers which had drained as much as $10,000 a month from the hotel bar.

The hotel was purchased for $6.1 million by a group of investors led by Frank Spina of Long Island, New York. The group planned $2 million in renovations, including satellite television.

Over time it became affiliated with major hotel chains, including Ramada Inn and Holiday Inn. Their attempts to renovate the building proved unprofitable and their tenures short-lived. At one point the attached parking garage was sold off, leaving the building without secured parking.

Parliament House in 2005

In the 1990s the Parliament House was refurbished and reopened as Parliament Hotel & Suites with a new restaurant and bar (Cafe 420). Artists from City Stages who were booked at the hotel, however, found the rooms to be small and insufficiently refurbished.

In 2001 Bedrock Partners of Dallas purchased the hotel from SouthTrust Bank for $3.2 million with plans to spend $15 million converting it into a Marriott Courtyard. The City of Birmingham approved a float loan of $600,000 to Crestline Capital Corporation to assist with the project, but the plans never moved forward. The building was put up for sale with a covenant restriction against using it as a hotel.

In June 2006 the building was purchased for $3.7 million by the UAB Education Foundation as a site for future expansion of the university. After explaining how the newly-exposed side of the parking deck would be addressed, UAB's application for a demolition permit was approved by the Birmingham Design Review Committee on September 26, 2007. Demolition began in late 2007 and will be punctuated by an implosion of the concrete structure on February 17.

Retailers

Retail outlets in the Parliament House included a barber shop and beauty salon, two clothing shops (Village Sportswear and Fain's Ltd), two auto rental offices, a sidewalk café, and a gift and sundry shop.

References

• Koenig, Bill (July 2, 1982) "Dream hotel hits third financial nightmare." Birmingham Post-Herald
• Koenig, Bill (July 7, 1982) "Mismanagement cited in hotel's demise." Birmingham Post-Herald
• Shook, Phil H. (November 20, 1983) "Long Island investment expert confident he can break Southside hotel's long jinx". Birmingham News.
• Tomberlin, Michael (June 30, 2006) "Parliament House to be razed by UAB". Birmingham News
• Kent, Dawn (February 15, 2008) "Parliament House hotel, home to both celebrities and squatters, to be imploded Sunday." Birmingham News

External links

• The Parliament House at Birmingham Rewound
• Parliament House on Emporis.com