DOWNTOWN : Owner to Serve House Arrest in Own Hotel

The elderly owner of a Skid Row hotel has been ordered to serve 30 days under house arrest in his own building after failing to maintain it by a court-imposed deadline, officials said.

Chung Chuan Wang is scheduled to turn himself in at the Modoc Hotel, 819 S. Towne Ave., by Wednesday morning.

Wang, who was also fined $10,835, pleaded no contest in March to 10 counts of fire, health, and building and safety code violations--his second conviction in five years. Los Angeles Municipal Judge Barry A. Taylor gave him until May 26 to repair the two-story, 76-room brick hotel.

During a June 8 hearing, Deputy City Atty. Lawrence P.V. Punter told Taylor that repairs to the Modoc Hotel complied with building codes. But health inspectors found a violation in the large amount of trash and debris inside a vent shaft, which posed a fire hazard.

Wang testified that he hired someone to maintain the property, but he couldn’t remember the contractor’s name, said Richard Bobb, supervisor of the city attorney’s housing enforcement unit.

Wang faced similar slum charges in 1989, when he pleaded no contest to 12 counts, was fined $13,138 and ordered to repair the building. In that case, he fixed the building but failed to meet the court-imposed deadline and was sentenced to perform 1,500 hours of community service and pay additional fines.

City officials say the Modoc Hotel, located across the street from an elementary school, is a source of prostitution and other crimes.

The city’s zoning administrator has tentatively scheduled a public hearing for Thursday to determine whether to impose conditions on the hotel to resolve the problem.