To free more space for housing and office construction, members of the Governing Board of Pima Community College have voted to first get rid of three 1950s-era motels located in what is called the Tucson Miracle Mile Historic District.
The motels are located off W. Drachman Street and have long been valued by preservationists and historians for their architectural style and details.
One of the motels, the Tucson Inn at 127 W. Drachman, was built in 1953 and regarded as an example of the Googie and Modernist movement that was so popular in the Southwest during the immediate post-World War II years.
Pima Community College officials earlier remarked that the motels, which were purchased by the school for $5.4 million some five years ago, could be repurposed for a variety of purposes, including housing, and subsequently issued a Request for Proposals for a developer to propose a way to adapt the structures to a new purpose.
But now, noting that a restoration of the properties would most likely cost at least $35 million, the Governing Board has decided that it would be less expensive to do away with the structures altogether and replace them with new structures.
In a statement issued by the college it was noted that it had received only one response to its earlier RFP notice, and that that proposal was “not economically feasible for the College and did not align with the College’s needs of a student-focused mission.”
The statement also said that the motels, all currently abandoned, “post significant safety risks, with ongoing incidents of break-ins, thefts, a fire, graffiti, and illegal squatting.”
“Removing these structures will address these hazards, while enabling the College to consider future uses for the site,” the statement added.
A timeline for when the estimated $2 million demolition will begin has not yet been announced.
December 5, 2024
By Garry Boulard
