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Nome’s Nugget Inn closed last November with plans to renovate and reopen before 2025’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. But the doors to the iconic Front Street hotel remain closed.
The trio of owners of the Nugget Inn are veteran Iditarod musher Mille Porsild, pilot Marc Millican and business consultant Elizabeth Shea. They entered the project with hope they could turn the aging-icon into a bustling, profitable hotel mere feet from the Iditarod’s finish line.
But they can’t seem to get on the same page about how to right the ship, especially with the high cost of restoring the half-century-old hotel built on Nome’s seawall.
Recovering from the storm
The Nugget Inn was hit hard during 2022’s ex-typhoon Merbok. That fall, the hotel closed in need of extensive repairs. The three new owners stepped in to help guide renovations. They reopened the hotel at limited capacity in early 2024, just in time for the Iditarod and summer tourism. Shea said the group initially focused on room quality over quantity.
“If I was going to go back and do it again, that's probably the main thing that I would do, is focus on capacity rather than upgrades,” she said.
More open rooms would mean more money coming in. And it’s the money in the bank the trio is running low on.
“There’s, I think, more work to be done than we expected, and so that's kind of stalled us, and also created an opportunity to perhaps restructure with some more investment and bringing on some more capital, in order to do a lot of those renovations,” Shea said.
Shea also said a major requirement on their list is upgrades to the fire alarm system. Until they scrounge up the funds, the doors will remain closed.
“One of the major reasons that we were not able to reopen is that we need to get this very sophisticated fire alarm system installed, and that's by the City of Nome and also the state fire marshal.”
Shea said the group couldn’t agree on how to get the extra funds needed for the upgrade. In an effort to get past the stalemate, Shea filed a motion for Immediate Dissolution of LLC last December, followed by Millican’s Opposition to Motion to Dissolve.
The back and forth triggered legal discussions on how to proceed, with a meeting scheduled for late July. Shea said all three parties didn’t attend, putting the trio back in court.
Shea said the City of Nome had been nothing but supportive through the process.
“The city has been so incredibly helpful at every turn. We couldn't ask for more cooperation and collaboration from them, they’ve just been wonderful. They're doing nothing but trying to help the Nugget moving forward.
The closure of the 40-room hotel has already made an impact on lodging in Nome. With only one other large hotel in town, busy tourist times like Iditarod and spring birding season have put a stress on Nome’s limited supply of short-term housing.
Shea said ultimately, the Nugget Inn will reopen, albeit with new owners.
“There's beautiful rooms inside. There's a beautiful bar. It should be open. When decisions are made and this process is finished, whoever is going to be there, it will be reopened. I am fully confident of that,” she said.
