Tim Steller's column: Spanish Trail cleanup in South Tucson could go further

It's happened four times in the last couple of years, if you count the lawsuits over the Spanish Trail Apartments and the property next door, the long-abandoned and burned-down Spanish Trail Motel.

The latest lawsuit, filed last week, is about the motel, probably the most infamous spot along that blighted stretch of I-10 frontage road as it crosses South Fourth and South Sixth avenues. Infamous, first, because of the tall, blasted-out sign for the Spanish Trail, and now for the burnt-out ruin of the motel buildings. It's more or less a copy of a lawsuit filed last year against the previous owner. 

The lawsuit came as a surprise to owner Kristian Gose, who just bought the property in October, for $225,000, according to Pima County Recorder's Office records. He learned about the suit not by being served — he still hadn't been served the lawsuit Monday — but from news reports and reporters, who themselves learned about it from a South Tucson news release. 

Gose told me he's been talking with South Tucson officials, with social service agencies and with Pima County about possible future uses, affordable housing being the top choice.

"I’m not a developer," he said. "I bought it with the intent to work with a nonprofit organization to get it cleaned up."

"It’s just super disappointing," Gose said of the lawsuit. "I didn’t buy it just to sit on it and say 'F.U.' to anybody."

Then he said something that rang especially true: "I feel like I’m a victim of whatever happened prior to this."

'People are angry about it'

I've been writing about the Spanish Trail Motel since April 2014, when I called on the city of South Tucson to tear down the eyesore sign, and do something about the collapsing motel, too. And I've viewed the broader properties around that stretch of frontage road, including the former Tucson Greyhound Park racetrack, as key to the town's economic future, if it has one.

Gose, whose company, Asgard Group LLC, is the formal owner of the Spanish Trail Motel, got caught in that decade-plus of frustration. It's only grown in the last few years, as the addiction crisis has taken especially firm hold of that part of South Tucson and neighboring Tucson. The motel itself has been the site of repeated fires, and cash-strapped South Tucson sued the previous owners in 2025 to get them to clean it up.

Then Gose bought it in October, with plans to find a suitor who would take it over and develop it into something better.

"From Day 1, I invited the people in charge of the City of South Tucson," he said. "We chatted about what’s the highest and best use of the property. We had a great conversation.

Gose thought he was still in talks with the city and future buyers when the lawsuit was announced. City officials thought he was stringing them along. 

And, to the city's point, there is this: If you go to the Spanish Trail Motel today, you'll see a burnt-out hulk with a chain link fence around it that has large holes and has been completely pushed down in places, essentially open to the wandering public.

"He’s supposed to clean up that mess," South Tucson City Council Member Brian Flagg said. "He said he would do it, and he never did it. He didn’t do it, so we finally filed a lawsuit."

"If this happened in the Foothills it would get dealt with quickly," Flagg said. "People are angry about it and people need to see it change."

Indeed, a group called Barrio Restoration has been doing regular cleanups nearby, especially in the area around the South Sixth Avenue bridge over I-10. The frustration about conditions in the area is understandably high.

In that sense, it is good to see the city acting impatiently on the Spanish Trail Motel property, even if it wasn't very nice from Gose's perspective. 

"I’m just going to spend the money, clean it up, and I guess I don’t know what I’m going to do" about the property's future use, Gose said. 

Pima County made offer

The likelihood is that Pima County will be involved somehow. Previous owner Brian Bowers had received an offer from the county for the property, of $816,000, deputy county administrator Carmine DeBonis Jr. said. But that was the appraised value of a clean property. Cleaning up the property could cost even more. 

"We heard he was shopping around for another purchaser and we withdrew our offer," DeBonis said. "He then sold to the current owner."

It would be great if the city, county or some developer took a broader view of that whole area, along the frontage road and to the north by the old racetrack. What is known locally as a blighted stretch has immense potential because of it being between two freeway interchanges.

The racetrack itself is being redeveloped by the BVB International Academy, a youth soccer arm of German super-club Borussia Dortmund, but there is plenty of available land.

It would be natural for retail or industrial development — Borderland Construction owns adjacent parcels and has cleaned up property it bought. Retail would be especially helpful to the square-mile city that lost its only supermarket last year, because the city depends on sales tax. Indeed, the city just eliminated its food tax in an effort to bring a supermarket back. 

Just to the east of South Tucson, that potential has become reality. There is a trail of new retail development along the interstate, including a Costco, a Walmart, and the latest, a Bass Pro Shop. But those are all in the city of Tucson, stuffing its coffers with sales-tax money, and the development ends conspicuously right at South Tucson's border. 

"The Board of Supervisors allocated up to $1.5 million for the cleanup and revitalization of the site,"  DeBonis said. "We’re willing to be part of a solution."

The current South Tucson council, dominated by people affiliated with the Casa Maria soup kitchen, has been reticent to encourage development that could drive up the cost of living in the low-income town. But if they can act this decisively to finally get the Spanish Trail Motel cleaned up, maybe they could take one step further and push for a whole new vision along what is now a pretty wretched stretch that holds great potential.