An investment group is planning a car-themed hotel that includes restaurants, retail and condominiums next to the California Route 66 Museum in downtown Victorville, California.
Brendan O’Brien, one of the principals of the investment group, explained the project during a recent Zoom meeting hosted by the California Historic Route 66 Association.
The hotel would be built on empty lots adjacent to the museum. The goal is to be finished by Route 66’s centennial in 2026, though O’Brien said that might be “ambitious.”
O’Brien made it clear during the meeting that he wants the development to be a partnership with the nonprofit organization that operates the museum so it would increase its visitor numbers.
“The last thing we want to do is try to make a whole bunch of sweeping changes and disrupt the harmony” of the museum, O’Brien said. “Our whole focus is to augment the museum and build around it.”
O’Brien said the chief complaints from museum visitors include the lack of restaurants or hotels nearby. His group’s development would address those.
He said there would be no changes to the museum itself except to add or enlarge its displays.
O’Brien showed a video that includes artist’s renderings of what is being called Route 66 Plaza, including its car-themed rooms:
The hotel also would include a railroad caboose used as a coffee shop, he said.
O’Brien said his investment group had purchased several buildings in Old Town Victorville. He acknowledged an “identity crisis” on how to redevelop those until it acquired the closed El Rancho Theatre. He said that property helped crystallize its vision for Old Town.
“The history is so deep here,” he said.
O’Brien said city officials are “excited” about the group’s hotel plan, and it will set up food trucks on its property as construction proceeds.
The California Route 66 Museum opened in 1995 in what was the Red Rooster Cafe, a site for the 1980 Neil Diamond movie “The Jazz Singer.” It’s one of the oldest Route 66 museums.
(Hat tip to Scott Piotrowski; image from Zoom video of an artist’s rendering of the proposed Route 66 Plaza in Victorville, California)