The Waterfront on Glacier hotel, which opened last year after an extensive remodel of what for many years was the Breakwater Inn, was shut down and guests evicted Monday by city officials due to the owner lacking a permit showing work on the building was done by licensed contractors.

“He cannot provide a licensed contractor to us and so we just are not confident that that building is safe for occupants,” Jill Lawhorne, community development director for the City and Borough of Juneau, told the Juneau Planning Commission on Tuesday night. “So we had it vacated yesterday, but it was not done lightly.”

Attempts by the Empire to reach officials at the hotel and in person were unsuccessful as of Friday morning. The front doors of the hotel were locked and cardboard was over the adjacent side windows just before midday Wednesday, and no people were seen moving in or outside the building.

The hotel’s website and social media pages did not as of Friday make any reference to the closure, and its booking website was allowing rooms to be reserved (the Empire did not attempt to fully complete the process by paying for a reservation).

Among the guests at the hotel forced to relocate were the six referees working this week at the Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament taking place next door at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. Tim Wilson, president of the Juneau Lions Club, said Wednesday he was at the tournament late Monday morning when he learned about the evictions.

“One of the referees came over and said ‘We have an emergency, we need you to come,’” he said. “He said that they were being evicted/kicked out of the hotel and asked him ‘Why? What’s going on?’ He said ‘I don’t know.’”

Wilson said he talked to the manager at the hotel, who was “very nice, very apologetic,” before driving downtown in search of rooms for the referees. He said he was able to book rooms for them at the Ramada by Wyndham Juneau, but at a substantially higher cost.

He said he didn’t know how many Gold Medal participants were staying at the Waterfront hotel, but “I know there was another family that was there that was from Hoonah and they were packing up. I think it was her mom and dad, or her grandparents, and her kids. And I think they ended up over there at the Ramada too.”

Lawhorne told the Planning Commission that while the closure is unfortunate, attempts by officials to resolve the situation for “many, many months” have been unsuccessful.

“We understand that we’re going into peak summer season,” she said. “We know it was booked. We understand it was even booked for some Gold Medal attendees which is very unfortunate, because the owner had notice at least three weeks ago, the formal notice, that if he didn’t get a permit in we would have to close him down.”

Furthermore, the owner is denying the work being cited by the city as a permitting issue occurred, Lawhorne said.

“We easily, frankly, have proven that he did,” she said, adding “There’s nothing to dispute there. Work was done. It was not done by a licensed contractor.”

The matter appears resolvable before peak tourism season arrives if the owner is willing, Lawhorne said.

“If the owner would get a licensed contractor — or contractors, because there’s electrical and plumbing and other work — it likely could be addressed within a month’s time and be open,” she said. “It’s in his court now, though.”

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.