Northeast News
February 15, 2017

It seems like a lifetime since we announced back in January of 2016 that the city had negotiated an agreement to purchase the blighted Royale Inn at Independence and The Paseo. We followed up in February with a status report on the structure, announcing what seemed at the time to be a pending demolition. Sadly, this was not the case. Then after some foot dragging, the City announced in August of 2016 that the purchase had been completed and demolition was imminent.
The dog and the community are still waiting.
The dilapidated and now tag-covered Royale Inn is of course still standing despite a demolition contract that was let on the building late in 2016. According to the folks in the know at 414 E. 12th Street, that demolition contract had to be modified to now allow for a hand demolition of the infamous no-tell motel, because the owner of the truck fix-it shop that abuts the west side of the Royale property has decided that his car-lot is worth another $100-large on top of the fair market value purchase price negotiated with the city. During a drive-by of the business, this critically-thinking news pooch noted more than one code violation, including parking cars on an unapproved surface. Additionally the lot was crowded full of tractor-trailers, some in varying states of repair and disrepair.
Razing the Royale Inn at this stage of the game would be trading one eyesore for another given the state of the vacant lots being used for car and truck storage along Lydia Avenue between Admiral and Independence. It’s a toss-up as to what looks worse; the tagged up, broken down façade of the abandoned Royale Inn or the truck stop fix-it shop that would be visible from the Paseo Boulevard right-of-way once the Royale is history. That said, however, this dog thinks it’s high time for some eminent domain action to get the widely heralded and much anticipated Paseo Gateway project restarted. Almost eighteen months into the project and the landscape at Independence and The Paseo is largely unchanged, with the exception of the private demolition of the seedy Capri Motel. It’s time for a Royale disappearing act courtesy of the wrecking ball.