COSTA MESA : Bel Congo Motel, Scene of Deadly Shooting, Is Demolished

The Bel Congo Motel, which made headlines in 1992 when a late-night party there erupted into a deadly shooting match, was demolished Tuesday to cheers from city officials.

“This is a huge success for us,” Mayor Joe Erickson said, and the first major victory in the city’s efforts to clean up dilapidated motels that officials say attract vagrants and criminals.

The Bel Congo, built in 1959 to draw tourists passing by on Harbor Boulevard, had grown shabby with age, said Ed Fawcett, executive director of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce. Fewer tourists checked in at the Polynesian-themed lodge, he said, and an increasing number of crimes were reported on the property.

Since the 1992 incident, in which two men were killed and a third wounded, Costa Mesa police have responded to an increasing number of calls at the 25-room motel, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Alan Kent. In 1994, he said, police received 114 calls about incidents there.

The Bel Congo was closed in February after plain-clothes police officers broke up what they said was a forgery ring and found phony identifications being made for check-writing purposes, officials said.

Shuttering the motel did not put an end to the Bel Congo’s troubles, however. Kent said there were numerous incidents of trespassing on the property afterward, which led the police and city officials to request that the building be demolished.

The owner of the motel, Peter Lin, cooperated with Costa Mesa police and city officials after receiving more than 1,300 citations for building code violations, officials said.

“It was dirty, the wood had rotted, the electrical wires created potential hazards, and the upper deck was unstable,” Kent said. “It had deteriorated so badly that it was unsafe and unhealthy for people to be in there.”

Lin could not be reached for comment Tuesday.