Cost jumps for Route 66 Visitor Center in Albuquerque

Two years ago, a proposed Route 66 Visitor Center on Nine Mile Hill on Albuquerque’s west side was slated to cost $3.4 million.

Now the cost will be at least $6 million and possibly as high was $8 million.

The cost has risen because community comments have changed the center’s purpose. KRQE-TV reported:

The county says it really wants the new facility to become a Westside hot spot.

“I think the idea started to evolve that perhaps it being more of a destination would make it more of an attraction and a resource for the community,” Murnane said.

Tuesday night, county commissioners approved a design that includes features like a museum, restaurant, taproom, amphitheater and a neon sign graveyard.

“It’s not just a place where you pull up and get a pamphlet. That’s not the idea that the community wants,” said Quezada.

The county, city and state are sharing in the project’s cost. The design has been approved, and the county now is looking to see who will run the Route 66 Visitor Center.

Here is the full video report from the TV station:

Officials anticipate construction will begin by October, with completion by 2020.

One could argue a better site would have been on the east edge of the city, since about 60 percent of Route 66 travelers are going west, according to the Route 66 Economic Impact Study.

However, the view from Nine Mile Hill gives spectacular views of Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountains. Nine Mile Hill rises hundreds of feet in elevation from the city’s center, and generations of travelers have enjoyed the view from there — especially at night.

(Artist’s rendering of the proposed Route 66 visitors center in Albuquerque via Bernalillo County)