A troubled southeast OKC motel has closed. But is it permanent?

A notorious southeast Oklahoma City motel deemed a public nuisance by a local judge has closed — at least for the time being — after a lawsuit from the city and years of complaints of violent crime.

Owners of the Plaza Inn, located at 3200 S Interstate 35 Service Road, had until Friday to boost security measures or face a shutdown, according to an Oct. 13 consent decree with city management and attorneys. But by Friday morning, fencing was seen around the motel, and phone calls from The Oklahoman to the Plaza Inn were not being returned.

Oklahoma County District Judge Don Andrews gave Steve Ketter and Michael Wiley, co-owners of the company running the Plaza Inn, two weeks to ensure at least two armed security guards were onsite 24/7 and at least 22 additional surveillance cameras were posted throughout the property.

Doug Carel, a lawyer representing Ketter and Wiley, told The Oklahoman the Plaza Inn was being closed temporarily to allow its owners to finish some remodeling.

"It's a temporary closure, and the owners are in compliance with the consent decree and are going to continue to be in compliance with it," Carel said Saturday.

But for now, city officials said the future for the motel remained unclear.

"Plaza Inn's management has not contacted the City to confirm (consent decree) requirements have been met, but a fence has been set up around the building and it appears they are closed to the public," spokespeople for the city said in a statement Friday. "The owners of the Plaza Inn will still be required to implement any outstanding security measures and now seek court approval if they intend to reopen for business."

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Once described by a local police officer as "the fentanyl den of Oklahoma City," the Plaza Inn has been a hotspot for criminal activity for many years, with numerous reports detailing deadly shootings and assaults, drug dealing and prostitution.

The Plaza Inn has about 100 rentable rooms and has been open along I-35 in southeast Oklahoma City since 1971. It has been owned by the El Reno-based Plaza Hotels LLC since about 2015.

Ketter had previously told The Oklahoman he and Wiley were working with the city's police and nuisance abatement office to make the motel safer. But city attorneys said the Plaza Inn owners had ignored multiple notifications to comply with city code and reduce nuisance concerns.

The city's lawsuit in May against the motel owners triggered a months-long dispute over how to improve conditions at the Plaza Inn, which resulted in the mid-October consent decree.

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A previous investigation by The Oklahoman in 2022 uncovered heavy issues with drug overdoses and homeless people on the property. With colder temperatures approaching and the Plaza Inn currently closed, questions remain about what will happen to its long-term guests, many of whom are of low-income means.

“The people we have there, they don’t have much money,” Ketter told The Oklahoman in May. “A lot of them work two jobs, but they call the Plaza home. And they’re very defensive of the property, so … I don’t know.”

In an interview Friday with KOCO-TV, Dan Straughan, executive director of the Homeless Alliance, encouraged residents affected by the Plaza Inn closure to seek shelter at the nonprofit's Westtown Homeless Resource Campus, 1724 NW 4th St.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Plaza Inn closes 'temporarily' on same day as consent decree deadline