Windows are smashed, glass litters the forecourt, weeds grow between cracks in the asphalt.
The word "Thief!" has been spray-painted in artful fashion on a piece of plywood.
The Holiday Court Motel is a decrepit, L-shaped building whose name mocks its current condition.
Not so long ago, it was the most notorious flophouse on Vancouver Island – a shooting gallery for drug addicts, a recruitment centre for pimps. It has been unoccupied, save for the occasional squatter, for several years.
On Friday, an orange Komatsu PC308USLC excavator arrived on the scene, grinding up the blacktop in the parking lot with its tracks. First thing Monday morning, an operator will use the machine to begin tearing down the two-story building.
"I guess that'll make a lot of people happy," the driver said.
Within two years, if all goes as planned, standing on the site will be a six-story office building incorporating the latest in environmental technologies. The building will even have plug-in spots for electric cars.
"It's been a long, long struggle for sure," said Brian Findlay, president of Andrew Sheret, a plumbing and heating supply company that purchased the site for $1.9-million seven years ago. "We're glad to be at a point where we can get started. It's a big relief."
The old motel is an eyesore. The interior has been gutted after crews removed walls containing asbestos. A stack of broken toilets – a pyramid of porcelain – rests in the front yard.
The owners have maintained a 24-hour guard, a part-time gardener and a busy paint crew. "We've invested thousands of gallons of paint to keep graffiti off of it," Mr. Findlay said. "It's been nightmarish at times."
Even those attentions did not prevent damage three years ago after a squatter's toaster oven ignited a fire in a basement room.
For years, the motel, at 470 Hillside Ave., a busy east-west thoroughfare, has been a rotten tooth in a tourist city that wishes to present to the world a gleaming smile.
You can tell the economic story of the city through the address of a single business over six decades of change.
The Holiday Court opened for business in 1952, catering to the post-war boom in automobile travel. The 22-room motel was built back from the sidewalk, allowing guests to park in front of their quarters.
It was the second motel on the block, built across the street from the Hillside Auto Court, which opened in the 1920s with 10 cabins sporting a Wild West motif. At the end of the block, at the intersection with Douglas Street, stood the Monterey Restaurant, which advertised a "drive-in coffee shop" where patrons could "eat in your car."
By the 1960s, tourists were lured to newer motels along Gorge Road, many of which boasted modern kitchenettes, as well as swimming pools. The Holiday Court remained an inexpensive option for tourists seeking a bargain, but a change of ownership led to it becoming a shabby, $24-per-night crash pad for troubled people. Tricks were turned in rooms and drugs were dealt from the windows.
In a single year, police responded to 371 calls at the motel, during which 16 people were sent to hospital after suffering drug overdoses. The motel's notoriety led Times Colonist reporter Jody Paterson to spend several days living among the residents, "impoverished people with severe addictions" whose struggles she told in an unflinching and remarkable series. A Christian group calling itself Extreme Outreach provided barbecued hot dogs for residents.
Police eventually cracked down on the motel, pushing the troubled residents to elsewhere in the downtown core.
The motel was purchased by Andrew Sheret after a court-ordered sale. The company will open a Splashes retail outlet on the ground floor, while maintaining offices upstairs.
The block has had many developments in recent years, including a seniors' residence and a new automobile dealership. "This will complete the block," said Mr. Findlay. "It'll really clean it up."
After 60 years of fun and frolic, then sorrow and squalor, it is checkout time for the Holiday Court Motel.