Beach Boulevard in Anaheim, known for its midcentury motels, is also infamous for drug deals, prostitutes and crime. Now the city may opt to buy a condemned motel on the street for $6.6 million.
The city of Anaheim will decide this week whether to buy the Covered Wagon Motel at 823 South Beach Boulevard, the Orange County Register reported.
A deal has been negotiated with its undisclosed owner. The cost would be $94,300 per room.
The 70-room motel was red-tagged last spring because of water leaks, electrical problems, mold, filth and squalor. City officials described conditions there as “inhumane” and “deplorable.”
The city aims to redevelop the motel property as part of a campaign to clean up Beach Boulevard, once the main thoroughfare between Disneyland and the ocean, and now home to a Googie-style carwash landmark. Anaheim has embarked on a $20 million effort to clean up the corridor with security cameras, license plate readers and property beautification.
Part of the cleanup includes trying to buy up the aging motels along the strip. Anaheim police now provide outreach to help people on the streets or living in motels find a safe place to go, or or get help for addiction or mental health issues.
Anaheim is asking motel owners to be part of the solution. But the owners of two motels, the Anaheim Lodge and Travel Inn, are now suing the city.
Early this year, the city placed conditions on the motels, where police service calls jumped from fewer than 50 in 2019 to more than 200 in 2021.
The conditions included barring room rentals shorter than 12 hours, ensuring a manager is on-site at all times and requiring housekeeping to at least check on every room daily.
The motel owners contend in court filings that the city used inaccurate or inappropriately obtained information. They argue the city violated their rights because it doesn’t like them renting rooms to homeless people.
They also allege Anaheim wants to drive them out of business and buy their properties at lower prices.
The city hasn’t been served with the suits, city spokesman Mike Lyster said. He said motel owners have met some of the new conditions.
“We stand by our efforts to ensure quality lodging standards on Beach Boulevard and we thank the motels for everything they’ve done over the past few months and how they have responded,” Lyster said.
Last October, the dilapidated Americana Motel on Beach Boulevard was torn down to make way for a mixed-use development that included affordable apartments, for-sale townhomes and 5,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, according to the Anaheim Observer.
The revitalization of the historic corridor is anchored by the 39 Commons project underway at Beach Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue. The large-scale development will include for-sale housing and a Whole Foods supermarket.
— Dana Bartholomew
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