Historic (And Haunted) Biltmore Hotel Gets A Stay Of Execution

After closing in 2009, the infamously haunted Belleview Biltmore hotel has long sat in a state of limbo, with the owners swearing they're going to tear it down and preservationists lobbying to rescue it. Now, it appears the haunted hotel has evaded destruction... for awhile.

Just a year before its closure, the Biltmore's haunted history paid off when it hosted the first annual TAPSCON festival, the official fan convention for SyFy's popular reality show Ghost Hunters, an event that supposedly saw almost a dozen camera broken by Robert the Haunted Doll. Still, even the famous phantom chasers from television and a spooky history of paranormal activity couldn't save the building from closure.

After over 2 hours of debating on Tuesday night, city commissioners voted to postpone a zoning change that would have allowed the current owners of the Biltmore Hotel to raze the building. The vote comes after years of legal limbo that have resulted in the hotel becoming a haven for urban explorers and paranormal investigators alike.

Today, the building is mostly frequented by people risking a breaking and entering charge in exchange for a glimpse at a ghost, but if preservationists and historians have their way, the building will not only be preserved, it will be restored - a duty that officials say they must uphold since the building technically qualifies as a historic site.

"Our ordinance and law is very clear that we have to preserve the hotel. We really don't have an option," Vice Mayor Stephen Fowler said Wednesday.

Until the next vote, The Bellevue Biltmore lives to haunt another day.