Hotel Central comes down

Wall of historic structure collapses, prompting neighborhood protests
photos by José F. Ponce

The allegation is that a restoration is underway, but neighbors and historic preservationists have long been disputing that characterization. First the owners dismantled the prized staircase inside the Casco Viejo's derelict Hotel Central. Then they cut off the outer balconies. Then they tried to add an extra story, violating a city permit and drawing a stop work order on that aspect.

Now one of the exterior walls, improperly buttressed, has collapsed. In the neighborhood fingers are being pointed at municipal and national government officials for either negligently or corruptly allowing the destruction of one of the historic district's important landmarks.

Part of the structural problem --- not of the building itself, but of the way that public policy works in Panama --- is that we have grossly inadequate public building inspection. It is expected that private financiers (general banks) will have their own inspectors to insure that their collateral is not unsafe or otherwise poorly built, and in bank-financed projects this is generally the case. Similarly, it has been presumed that building site safety would be insisted upon by inspectors for the builders' insurance companies.

The expectation of corruption --- that whatever building code, historic preservation law, environmental regulation or workplace safety stricture can be cheaply circumvented by the payment of bribes no matter how infamous the result --- is one of the factors that has led to the system's breakdown. Small owner-financed construction and remodeling jobs also tend to fall through the cracks. Large-scale construction that involves the laundering of organized crime proceeds and in which banks are not involved creates and even bigger hole in Panama's mainly privatized building inspection system.

Whatever the problem with the Hotel Central, many of the neighbors are furious about it.

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