Last week, we learned the historic Rancho Court motel in Springfield, Missouri, was torn down.
This week, Steve Pokin of the Springfield Daily Citizen used his usual shoe-leather skills to find out why the razing of the Route 66 landmark occurred.
The gist: The city didn’t provide other options for the owner until the day of the demolition.
Arrash Ahmadnia, a dentist who bought the motel in 2022, said his original intent was to renovate each unit and rent them out monthly.
But the expense for the refurbishments was more than triple what he anticipated — up to $20,000 per unit. He said homeless people were also breaking into the cottages and vandalizing them.
Ahmadnia said he was in talks with Big Boy Men’s Ministry in Cabool, Missouri, about using the units as a halfway house for released prisoners.
He said the city discouraged him, saying he either needed to fix up the property or tear it down.
Ahmadnia entered into a contract to demolish the property on Oct. 13. But then he heard from the city that morning:
“They said they had all these things, all these programs, grants and stuff that could help make the property into, for example, a Route 66 gift shop.
“Where were you guys two or three months ago when we were trying to get plans OK’d by the city? I told them I was under contract to demolish them that day. I told them I don’t know what you want me to do.
“It was a lack of communication,” Ahmadnia says. “It was heartbreaking and frustrating.”
Bob Hosmer, the city’s planning manager, says it’s a “tragedy” when old structures with some historical significance are demolished.
(Rancho Court was not designated a historical site.)
“I don’t know if there is miscommunication on our part or his part,” Hosmer tells me. […]
Currently, Hosmer says, there is no entity with a mission to contact property owners and outline to them what grants or tax incentives might be available for rehabilitating old, dilapidated structures with some historic significance.
After this, perhaps the city would create an entity to do that or assign those duties to a department. It’s kinda embarrassing that one of Springfield’s most distinctive and historic Route 66 properties finds the wrecking ball on the eve of the highway’s centennial.
(Excerpted postcard image of the Trail’s End Motel courtesy of 66Postcards.com)