¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

ctrl + shift + ? for shortcuts
© 2025 Groups.io
  1. Vanishingtucson
  2. Topics

cluster of neon motels on West Flores Street -- pourquoi?

 

Howdy, VT'ans:
I noticed a while back that there is a cluster of five old neon motels/ motor courts on West Flores Street a block or two east of North Oracle Road. The most excellent "Historic Miracle Mile Driving Tour" guide by Demion Clinco and Dirk Arnold -- (~6.72MB, four pages, PDF format) -- mentions them (as stop 14), but does anyone know why there are motels here and not also on Rillito, Ventura, or any of the other side streets?
Did Flores Street connect Miracle Mile to something interesting further east that would draw enough traffic to justify customer-snaring motels?
Currently there is a cluster of four or five residential properties (a tiny oasis of SFRs plus a multi-unit in an otherwise very commercial/ industrial area) at the east end of Flores where it dead-ends behind the Sixth Avenue Dog Park, but there does not seem to be anything else particularly noteworthy on that street.
Or is this just dumb luck of development?


Some recent-ish history: the El Saguaro Apartments at 303 West Flores Street (and 302 West Ventura Street, property is full block deep) sold on 23-JUN-2015 -- -- for $267K to Gary Allan Properties LLC (whose member/managers are Evelyn Lieuwen and Gary A. Zimbler*). This property was last used as residential drug rehab housing by Compass, now Pasadero, and was the site of a shooting death -- -- in 1996.


Cheers and thanks,
Les.


* Zimbler is/was also a principal in Riviera Investments, Inc., and Sunland Motel LLC, among other entities.
 

Hello All,

Thanks to Les for the alert. ?Always good to report if one of your old favorite places is for sale, especially if it has been boarded up. ?Another bad omen is severed utility lines. ?

The good news is that the El Sahuaro sign is up for a Historic Landmark Sign restoration, using a limited time City grant ?program that offers matching funds for sign restoration along Miracle Mile. ?

Cheers,

Carlos




---In vanishingtucson@..., <les_p_hackenslash@...> wrote :

Howdy, VT'ans:
I noticed a while back that there is a cluster of five old neon motels/ motor courts on West Flores Street a block or two east of North Oracle Road. The most excellent "Historic Miracle Mile Driving Tour" guide by Demion Clinco and Dirk Arnold -- (~6.72MB, four pages, PDF format) -- mentions them (as stop 14), but does anyone know why there are motels here and not also on Rillito, Ventura, or any of the other side streets?
Did Flores Street connect Miracle Mile to something interesting further east that would draw enough traffic to justify customer-snaring motels?
Currently there is a cluster of four or five residential properties (a tiny oasis of SFRs plus a multi-unit in an otherwise very commercial/ industrial area) at the east end of Flores where it dead-ends behind the Sixth Avenue Dog Park, but there does not seem to be anything else particularly noteworthy on that street.
Or is this just dumb luck of development?


Some recent-ish history: the El Saguaro Apartments at 303 West Flores Street (and 302 West Ventura Street, property is full block deep) sold on 23-JUN-2015 -- -- for $267K to Gary Allan Properties LLC (whose member/managers are Evelyn Lieuwen and Gary A. Zimbler*). This property was last used as residential drug rehab housing by Compass, now Pasadero, and was the site of a shooting death -- -- in 1996.


Cheers and thanks,
Les.


* Zimbler is/was also a principal in Riviera Investments, Inc., and Sunland Motel LLC, among other entities.

1 - 2 of 2