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Nearly six years after the the City of Eureka condemned the notorious apartment building across the street from the Shanty on Third Street, long referred to by locals as the “Heroin Hilton,” the building is getting a much-needed makeover. If everything goes according to plan, it’ll soon be converted into a hostel that will welcome travelers to the Old Town neighborhood.

After the building, previously owned by infamous local slum-lords Floyd and Betty Squires, was closed for what the city deemed “unsafe and unsanitary conditions” – including containing large quantities of hypodermic needles, feces, hazardous wiring and plumbing and cockroach infestations – the then-dingy cream-colored building was boarded up. It sat that way for years.

Then, in September 2021, the space was purchased by local nonprofit Westside Community Improvement Association (WCIA), with financing help from the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission. WCIA’s goal is to transform the neglected building into a beautiful boutique hostel and apartment building that will create jobs and promote tourism in Old Town. The name of the new facility will most likely be the Skyhorse Lodge. 

“This is really about reenvisioning and reinventing that corner of Old Town,” Heidi Benzonelli-Buden, president of the WCIA, told the Outpost in a phone interview Thursday. “Once we are operational this [business] will be transformative.” 

The building in 2017 | File photo: Andrew Goff

The WCIA, which aims to revitalize Eureka buildings and neighborhoods while creating jobs and educational and recreational opportunities, is best known for its work on the Jefferson Community Center and Park – a once abandoned school campus that the group purchased and transformed into a vibrant community hub, which holds classes, a bike library, a community garden, child care services and much more. 

A few years ago the WCIA also started a workforce training program, using funding from the California Community Reinvestment Grants Program, which aims to improve health, wellness and economic justice for communities harmed by the War on Drugs. Benzonelli and the WCIA used the funding to create a 13-week construction training program for recovering addicts and formerly incarcerated individuals to help them re-enter the workforce. 

Working with individuals referred from other local work programs or recovery centers, including the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP) and UPLIFT Eureka and Waterfront Recovery Services, the WCIA helps the participants receive EPA Lead-Safe Renovation training and provides them with a paid job under the guidance of a professional contractor. One of the job-training “cohorts,” as WCIA calls them, restored a recovery house on 14th and C Streets. Now the same program is being used to work on the former “Heroin Hilton” on Third Street. 

Auriah Milanes, project manager for the renovation, told the Outpost that his team has already accomplished a lot of work on the building, including restoring some of the windows and ripping out the “nasty stuff” from the inside. There is still a lot of work to be done, but most of it will have to wait until the city has approved the necessary permits, Milanes said.

Until then, renovation efforts will mostly be focused on the building’s exterior. And if you’ve been past the building recently, then you know that a lot of progress has already been made. Roughly six months ago, the building was completely repainted in vibrant purples, with floral designs by local artist Blake Reagan decorating the boards on the building’s facade. For about the last month, Reagan has been working on a large mural (which is almost complete) on the west-facing wall, featuring a scene of wildflowers, grass, blue sky, clouds and a mirror-surfaced orb that reflects the images of the neighboring business the Shanty and North of Fourth and a cloud in the shape of Pegasus, in honor of the Skyhorse name. 

Reagan has previously done murals for the Jefferson Community Center and said he was excited to be approached by Benzonelli for this project, which gives him the opportunity to do what he loves the most: transforming ugly walls into beautiful ones. 

“[We’re] taking what was the biggest blight in Old Town and making it into kinda the coolest building in Old Town,” Reagan told the Outpost, while he was working on the mural earlier this week. 

The WCIA really wanted to prioritize improving the building’s “curbside appeal,” Reagan said, which is why he painted the temporary murals on the boards that cover the front door and windows. Once the new windows and door are installed, Reagan’s art will be moved inside of the building for display, he said. Though Reagan only painted the art and not the rest of the building, he did get to select the shades of purple for the building.

“I figured this building really needed a healing color to come into its new place in our community,” Reagan said. “I looked up and down Third Street and was like, ‘What color does this street need?’ There’s a lot of beige and a lot of gray. I thought, ‘Let’s give this town some color!’ And I think more building owners should be doing that.” 

Once construction is complete, which will likely be at least a year from now, Benzonelli said, the top floor of the building will hold the hostel and have a combination of multi-bed dorm rooms, and three-person private rooms to rent nightly for travelers. Downstairs there will be an ADA-accessible room, as well as a common kitchen, laundry room and community room for guests to use. The building will also hold several apartments for workforce housing – one that will be for the innkeeper and others that can be rented for long-term stays. 

The WCIA’s work-training program will also continue to be utilized to operate the hostel, once it is open. Individuals in the program will receive training in hospitality and customer service and will be given the opportunity to work in various positions in the hostel, including as receptionists, cleaning crew or even as a doorman. (Yes, Benzonelli said that the hostel will have a doorman and will provide a higher level of service than is typical for a hostel.) 

Benzonelli said that the team is really not trying to rush the completion of this project and she wants it to be done right. She is hopeful that construction may be complete by next year, but said that realistically the hostel will probably open in early 2025. For those who want to see the progress, the WCIA is holding an event at the space on Sept. 30. To honor the wishes of the late Richard Evans, who worked with the WCIA, the organization will be auctioning off some of Evans’ art and pieces donated by other local artists. All of the proceeds will go toward Evans’ favorite local nonprofits. 

The event will also be the first time the Skyhorse building will be open to the public since WCIA took it over. And though the project certainly won’t be complete by this September, Benzonelli invites people to come see the progress that has been made and to learn more about the future of this exciting new addition to Old Town and the good work that the WCIA is doing. 

“We have created jobs, opened buildings and invested in the community,” Benzonelli said. “We’re making progress where people matter.”