The same developer who revamped the El Vado Motel and Monterey Motel in Albuquerque also will transform another Route 66 motel in that city — the Imperial Inn Motel.
According to Albuquerque Business First (subscription required), the motel will become a mix of residential, restaurants and retail:
The city announced Saturday it is moving forward on renovating and repurposing the Imperial Inn at 701 Central Ave. NE. Oregon-based Palindrome Communities will be the project’s developer and is pumping in $7.6 million in private money, the city announced.
The project will leverage a $700,000 loan from the city’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency and is considered one of 10 major redevelopment projects the MRA has in its pipeline in 2021.
The facelift includes renovating the motel to accommodate 52 guest rooms, 16 residential suites, and more than 4,400-square-feet of rentable commercial space. The project will use the existing structures and two newly-constructed buildings.
Construction is slated to begin in June, with a target completion date of June 30, 2022.
According to RoadsideArchitecture.com, the Imperial Inn Motel opened in the early 1960s as the Imperial 400 Motel as part of a chain that originated in Los Angeles.
The financially troubled chain was bought out in 1987.
El Vado Motel reopened as a mix of lodging, restaurants and shops in 2018 after years of renovations and struggle between the city and a developer who wanted to tear it down to make way for luxury townhouses.
Improvements to the adjacent Monterey Motel began not long after that.
(Excerpted image from Google Street View of the Imperial Inn Motel in Albuquerque; postcard image of the Imperial 400 Motel in Albuquerque courtesy of 66Postcards.com)
This was a cute motel. I stayed here when it was called the imperial “400” motel chain. Nice mom & pop motel. I got pix of it during my Route 66 trips. Even got a post card