Anchorage wants $202,468 back from the owner of the Big Timber Motel it demolished

The Municipality of Anchorage has recorded a lien against the owner of the former Big Timber Motel to recover the $202,468 it spent tearing the building down. The account comes from a case study the Office of Community and Economic Development presented at the Assembly's housing work session Friday, Aug. 28.

Code enforcement had been tracking the property since at least 2011, citing it repeatedly for lack of heat, flooding and dangerous conditions. Between 2017 and 2025 the owner failed again and again to secure the building or register it as vacant. An attempt to negotiate an agreement with the owners last year went nowhere.

The city issued notices to demolish in April and May. The owner did not comply. Crews pulled out hazardous materials and took the building down between June and August, and the lien followed. CYS won the demolition contract through competitive bidding in July.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance started the teardown herself on Aug. 11, at 5th Avenue and Unga Street, on a building that had sat empty roughly a decade. "Tearing down the Big Timber is a huge win for nearby neighborhoods," she said that day. The city says it fronted the cost and expects the lien to return the full amount to taxpayers, and that the cleared parcel is now a utility-ready lot for redevelopment.

All of that is the administration's account, presented by the administration. The owner is not in it.

The presentation also laid out work meant to keep buildings from reaching this point: connecting owners of distressed homes with buyers, reaching owners before a property passes the point of no return, and code changes to better protect vacant buildings from trespasser damage. Four more nuisance properties are scheduled for demolition before the end of 2026.