OXNARD : Developer Has Big Plans for Wagon Wheel
Plans to expand the intersection of the Ventura Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway have prompted Oxnard developer Martin V. Smith to redesign the Wagon Wheel, the Western-motif resort that once sparkled as a playground for Hollywood’s elite.
While state transportation officials are designing an interchange to handle thousands more drivers, consultants for Smith are drawing up blueprints for a 21st-Century entertainment complex to rival the best in Southern California.
“When we’re done, we want to see a fairly intense office, residential and commercial mix all on one piece of property,” said Walter Calhoun, a vice president with Smith & Associates, one of Oxnard’s largest landowners and developers.
The Oxnard City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to review initial plans for the Wagon Wheel development.
Calhoun envisions a sprawling complex that would house residences, office buildings, commercial businesses and entertainment centers--much like the original Wagon Wheel that opened 45 years ago.
“There’s no timeline on it,” he said. “We could do it in five years or we could do it in 20 years. But it has to be master-planned now (because of the freeway expansion).”
The 47-acre resort across from The Esplanade mall is dotted with dozens of businesses with names like Debra’s Wig Fashions and Grandes barbershop. The handles on the front door of the 88-room motel are crafted out of branding irons, and wooden-spoked wheels line the patios and landscaping.
Old-timers reminisce fondly of the resort’s glory years, when movie stars like Jack Nicholson and Ernest Borgnine quenched their thirst at the bar. Even today, autographed photos of stars like Ann-Margret, Clint Eastwood and Roy Clark hang on the walls.
“There’s going to be a lot of us who are going to miss this place,” said Richard Burns, who for years has worked as a piano player in the Wagon Wheel cocktail lounge. “There aren’t a lot of places like this around.”
But Sue VanCamp, another executive with Smith & Associates, said they would try to build the new complex with the same sense of attraction.
“It was unique in its time when it was built,” VanCamp said. “It was the only thing of its caliber in Oxnard. But whatever we put there will be of the best quality and in keeping with the times.”
Bob Weithofer, the Oxnard city engineer working with the California Department of Transportation on the highway expansion, said the state plans to begin the road improvement project in 1996 or 1997.
The existing interchange “was designed for a smaller community than what it is serving today,” he said. “The city of Ventura, Oxnard and the entire county has changed since it was put in.”
