The city of Selma will continue running the St. James Hotel in hopes of turning it into a tourist destination under a flagship name.

The Selma City Council voted last Tuesday to keep running the hotel for an additional 90 days.

Councilwoman Susan Keith says she envisions the hotel being a destination, and she hopes the extra 90 days will get the ball rolling on that being a possibility.

“We extended it for 90 days because we are going to be having some meetings with some managements companies, hopefully real soon,” Keith said. “We hope to restore the hotel to its previous position as the anchor of Water Avenue and as a destination.”

Keith said the city is talking to two companies that specialize in renovating historic hotels like the St. James and operating them under a flagship.

“The hotel itself could be a destination, and it has been for some people,” Keith said. “There are people that have come to eat or to stay in the past. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be again.”

Keith said there isn’t a definite date set for a meeting with the two companies, but she said the city is under pressure to get something worked out if the hotel wants to stay in business.

“I don’t have a date specifically, but we have a 90-day extension to have something done, so we’re under the gun. We have to do something quickly,” Keith said.

The city started operating the hotel after Strand Management decided to end its management contract with the city in March, asking out of it early.

When the city took over management the council agreed to a 90-day operating term to give them time to find someone to buy it or another company to manage it.

Councilman Cecil Williamson said he has the same hopes and dreams of seeing the St. James as an attraction to downtown Selma, but he is not in favor of spending more money. Williamson voted against the 90-day extension.

“We’ve already spent half a million dollars to keep the hotel open this past year. There is no telling what our expenses are going to be for the next 90 days,” Williamson said. “We need to close it down and cut our losses. We have spent far too much money to keep the hotel open, especially considering all of the needs we have. We have much more pressing issues for the city than running a hotel.”

Williamson said the hotel has too many problems that need to be fixed, such as the roof and the air conditioning.

The council voted Tuesday to spend a total $33,000 on new air conditioning at the hotel, but Williamson again voted no.

“I’m not voting to spend another penny down there,” Williamson said.

According to Williamson, there is no way the hotel could be profitable due to a bill Strand left them with.

“There is no way it could have been profitable,” Williamson said. “I think in the last 90 days we have probably taken in enough to beat the expenses, but we were left with 80 something thousand dollars in bills when Strand left plus the $33,000 we just spent for the air-conditioners. There is no way the hotel is breaking even when you factor those figures in.”

Keith said it is important to her to keep the hotel running because of the effort that was originally put into the hotel for renovations.

“The hotel was a partnership at it’s best of the community, public and private partnerships, and a lot of people all paid a lot of money,” Keith said. “There were a lot of contributions all the way around. There were fundraisers, there were individual donations, there were business and corporate donations and public donations in order to restore the hotel.”

Keith said the hotel serves as the anchor of Water Avenue and under the right operation, it could be a vital part of the entertainment district.