El Vado’s New Life

The dusty bell that still hangs inside El Vado Motel’s lounge above the boarded-up front door won’t be ringing anytime soon.

The historic motel, which the city acquired in March 2010, is being touted as a “catalyst” for development in the high-traffic area near Old Town and the BioPark, but it’s still years away from being open for business, said Ben Ortega, manager of the city’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency.

“The ball’s in our court now to get things going,” he said.

The MRA has worked on a redevelopment plan for the past year and will probably pitch it to the City Council in August. If the council approves the plan, the city will gather neighborhood input, modify the plan, and then ask the council and Albuquerque Development Commission for permission to continue.

That process could take six to eight months, Ortega said, and then the city will ask for bids on the entire redevelopment project, including the 75-year-old motel that sits along Old Route 66.

The initial plan won’t include development proposals for the motel itself, but will instead offer ideas for business incentives, boundary limits, street fronts and signage, Ortega said.

“Before we can proceed we need an MRA plan,” he said.

Ortega visited the motel, a white adobe building with traditional vegas along the ceilings and Pueblo murals above each room, for the first time Friday. He said the city will try and preserve the Southwestern style in whatever application it finds for the historic building.

“I’m encouraged,” Ortega said after surveying the motel. “A lot of character-defining elements are still intact. … We would have an interest to keep those.”

The property sits on a stretch of cultural sites that extend from the National Hispanic Cultural Center, up the bosque and across Central Avenue, to the aquarium, Old Town and museum district.

That’s why Ortega said the property, along with a city-owned restaurant across the street, could jump-start development in the area, a notion validated after he saw the motel.

“I just wanted to see how worthy it was as a catalyst site, and I think it meets that standard,” he said.

Since the city takes ownership of the motel and the area around it is slated to soon undergo major rezoning, many options are open for the old building, Ortega said.

“The city owns the property, and we can control the development on the property, rather than waiting for the private sector,” he said.

The city landmark motel opened in 1936 and closed in 2005. The city paid $1.4 million to then-owner Richard Gonzales for the property and replaced the roof shortly after for $130,000.