A local nonprofit initiative aims to convert the historic-but-closed El Pueblo Motor Inn in Flagstaff, Arizona, into low-cost housing.
Flagstaff resident Phil Scandura, a retired avionics engineer and architectural draftsman, talked during a phone interview about the site, also known as El Pueblo Motel, along Route 66.
El Pueblo, at 3120 E. Route 66, has sat idle for several years after efforts to renovate it into a boutique hotel or a Navajo Code Talkers museum stalled.
Scandura said his group wants to restore the three existing buildings, rebuild the razed office building into a common space and museum, and build 19 to 20 small units behind the existing buildings as starter homes. One option is Flagstaff acquiring the property for “city needs.”
“We need to do something about this place,” he said. “We don’t want it to disappear.”
The development team includes architect Karl Eberhard, who is working pro bono on the project, and the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, he said.
Habitat would rent out spaces at the site to tenants for a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years. Those tenants also would have money transferred into their accounts for a down payment on a future home.
Flagstaff has suffered from housing shortages for years. At least two other former motels on Route 66 have been converted into low-income housing to ease the problem.
Scandura said the proposal has won the support of the Arizona Preservation Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
He said an official from the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona has also signaled support, as have the members of the Flagstaff City Council.
Scandura said he also met on Wednesday with Flagstaff city manager Joanne Keene, who was “generally positive” about the proposal.
“She is supportive of our efforts, although the method by which the property is acquired remains ‘to be determined,'” he wrote in an email. “We are continuing to work together to find the best path forward.
“The ‘news’ shared with me is that the City has applied for an Arizona Department of Transportation grant to perform a condition assessment of the property to better inform the owner and/or interested buyers.”
Scandura said the condition of the existing buildings is unknown, but he was confident they could be successfully renovated.
“My feeling is that any building — short of one that is burned to the ground — can be rehabilitated,” he said. “It’s just the time and the cost.”
Scandura said the group is also considering other options with local developers who need to meet affordable housing quotas to save El Pueblo.
The motel was put on the market last summer for $2.7 million.
El Pueblo was where the motel’s founder, Philip Johnston, recruited the first 29 Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Code words in the Navajo soldiers’ native language, which the Japanese were unable to crack, proved invaluable in U.S. war efforts.
The motel itself dates to 1937.
(Images courtesy of Phil Scandura)