Ocala’s chief building official has declared all balcony rooms at the downtown Hilton Garden Inn “unsafe for occupancy,” citing sagging balconies and water damage.
In an Oct. 29 letter to hotelier Danny Gaekwad, Chief Building Official Benjamin Maxson wrote that the hotel’s balcony rooms must remain vacant until either a registered design professional confirms the balcony rooms are safe or “necessary repairs are permitted, inspected, and approved.”
After surveying all the balcony rooms the next day, Maxson kept the closure in place, citing preliminary findings from engineer Miles Anderson. Anderson warned that “the damages are growing and the intricacies in the design are approaching a rapid structural failure that will result in a domino effect,” Maxson wrote in an Oct. 30 email…