Cedar Rapids Hotel/Minimalist Living Community Closes Due to Safety Violations

Kiteville, located in the home of the former Clarion Hotel and Ramada Hotel in Cedar Rapids, has officially been shut down to to several safety violations. According to KCRG, "the owners and managers of the building have failed to address concerns about its fire suppression and alarm system," which puts its residents at risk.

Located at 525 33rd Ave SW, Kiteville serves as a hotel and "minimalist living community." It's basically an inexpensive place where patrons can book both short-term and long-term stays. The company's website says that their goal is to provide "the freedom to check-in for a single night while traveling, explore neighborhoods for various activities, or stay for weeks or months, capitalizing on the ability to work from anywhere in the world." 

Unfortunately, anyone staying at the Cedar Rapids Kiteville location, whether it be short or long-term, can only remain there until 8 a.m. today (February 5th). On February 4th, the Cedar Rapids Fire Marshal’s Office officially placarded the building after they tried several times to get the owners/management to address the serious safety issues.

According to the post from the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Greg Smith is quoted as saying:

"The Fire Marshal's Office has worked tirelessly with Kiteville staff to find a resolution to this unfortunate situation. We understand this will be a challenge for some of Kiteville's patrons, but lacking fire suppression systems and qualified fire watch, each person who resides under Kiteville's roof is at risk."

As you can imagine, the sudden closure of Kiteville has created housing issues for some of its patrons, but KCRG reports that they were given packets with emergency housing information. You can check out a list of resources from the Linn County website HERE. Kiteville's Cedar Rapids location is currently listed on Google as "Temporarily closed." It has 3.3 out of 5 stars.