Duluth woman faces arson charges after Greysolon Plaza fire, eviction filing

A downtown Duluth apartment dispute turned into a fire, a felony case and a public-safety alarm at Greysolon Plaza after officials said Carmenetta Rena Holt, 52, is accused of setting a blaze there on May 15 and now faces felony first-degree arson charges.

The Duluth Fire Department said the fire was reported at 5:23 p.m. after a passerby saw smoke coming from a window at the building, 231 E Superior Street. Firefighters found the fire in a unit on the eighth floor and kept it confined to that apartment. One resident was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation, another was displaced by water damage and was being helped by the American Red Cross, and the fire caused an estimated $70,000 in damage. Superior Street was closed near the scene before reopening.

What makes the case more than a routine fire investigation is the sequence around it. Court documents said eviction papers were filed for Holt earlier that same day. A letter on Greysolon Plaza letterhead said management was terminating her lease immediately because of an alleged assault on another resident the day before. The police report referenced in the case said the neighbor had a visible injury, suggesting the fire did not erupt in isolation but after a rapidly escalating conflict inside the building.

Greysolon Plaza is no ordinary apartment complex. Orbach Affordable Housing Solutions says the property has 150 one-bedroom apartment homes, and Minnesota’s ADResources site describes it as subsidized housing for seniors under HUD rules, with at least one resident in each apartment required to be a senior. The former Hotel Duluth sits in the heart of downtown, where a single-unit fire can ripple quickly through a dense residential building filled with older tenants and limited escape time.

The May 15 response involved St. Louis County/911 dispatch, Mayo Clinic Ambulance, the Duluth Police Department and the American Red Cross. The fire also came after another Greysolon Plaza fire response in January 2024, when the Duluth Fire Department estimated about $25,000 in damage to the apartment where that fire started and another $10,000 in hallway smoke damage.

Taken together, the eviction filing, the alleged assault and the fire point to a larger question for downtown Duluth: what building management, police and support systems knew before the blaze, and whether a volatile situation inside a senior housing complex was allowed to intensify until residents were put at risk.