Anaheim Beach Boulevard Motel Study

City of Anaheim, CA

The City of Anaheim has multiple outdated motels along the stretch of Beach Boulevard between Buena Park and the City of Stanton.  While some of these motels are being used as de facto affordable housing by families who cannot access resources for apartment deposits, other motels are not being properly maintained and cater to a criminal element.  In all cases, the economics of these uses was not resulting in the turnover of sites that residents and City staff wanted to see along the corridor.

As part of the Beach Boulevard Specific Plan, BAE was asked to evaluate how many of the existing motel rooms met legitimate lodging needs, and then determine how many more could be demanded based on future market conditions. As much of the relevant data was confidential, the ranking profile allowed BAE to report the methodology and findings without violating confidentiality requirements.  BAE used five criteria to rank motels to show their relative strength in the local hospitality market, including: presence on motel reservation sites; police calls by address; tax exempt room nights; transit occupancy tax paid; and gross receipts generated. BAE then combined individual rankings by category to create an overall summary matrix.

Through this analysis, BAE was able to identify the number of rooms being used for lodging, and dispel myths that motels being used as affordable housing were contributing to police activity.  The analysis was used to inform the City as to which motels should be prioritized for purchase, and which motels might actually be better positioned for other uses, such as conversion to affordable and permanent supportive housing.