ACDA Transforming Vacant Lot into RV Resort

Deluxe it may be, but the project is a step down from ACDA’s previous proposal for tourist accommodations: a twelve-story hotel built on top of the Downtown Transit Center. That project is scrapped, says Robbins, since the development partners were unable to secure the estimated $60 million in private financing.

Denali View RV Resort has a $6 million development cost. ACDA expects to spend about $1 million, federal grants should make up almost $1 million more, and private partners will invest about $4.2 million. Robbins would not divulge the identity of the partners until the bidding process is complete. ACDA also intends to contract with a private company to manage the site.

A hotel it isn’t, but an RV resort is a step up from what the property has been since 1999: nothing. The hospital shut down in 1997 when Alaska Native Medical Center opened across town, and the building was demolished two years later. The land is classified as Seismic Zone 5, the highest risk category, so nothing substantial could be built on it.

Activating the Space

Assembly Chair Chris Constant, who represents the Downtown district, notes that residents decried the “Party Hill” reputation of the lot. Two years ago, it housed one of the largest illegal campgrounds in Anchorage. Neighbors demanded that the city “activate” the property with positive uses.

“Thank you for taking control of the site,” Constant told Robbins at the groundbreaking. “The single most important factor to change the dynamic for people who live and have businesses here is that it’s no longer a free-for-all.”

Constant had resisted earlier plans for the RV resort, pointing to the area’s master plan that designated a monument to the Alaska Native people whose lives were intertwined with the hospital. The resulting design places the monument in the center of the site.

Constant says, “I’ve come to style this monument as Anchorage’s living land acknowledgement. We should not think of this as a monument to all of those who have passed but to think of the past and present contributions to Anchorage, to Alaska, to our great land.”

Corridor of Activity

In addition to the monument, the site will host what Robbins calls a “comprehensive community space” with Anchorage’s largest urban garden. Those features may outlive the RV resort; at the end of the twenty-year lease, after the property has helped revitalize the neighborhood, the land may be put to other use.

Constant notes that the corners along Third Avenue are Seismic Zone 4, suitable for small buildings, which will become part of the development. “The vision for those areas when this place is fulfilled will be community-serving commercial businesses with residential elements attached. So we will, in fact, see housing built on this property,” he says.

The RV resort is slated to open to paying visitors by the start of the 2027 tourist season. Robbins says it should be completed in 2028.

“It’ll be one of the biggest things to happen in this part of Downtown in a very long time,” Robbins says. “We’re going to create a very positive corridor of activity here, not only for the residents but for people all over the city to come and enjoy our Downtown.”

The activity has been a long time coming. Constant invoked the analogy of spirit houses at the Orthodox cemetery in the Native Village of Eklutna. “Once they finally decay, the land is cleared; the spirit is free to return to the universe,” he said. “This land, its spirit house is open. It’s cleared. It is ready for something to happen here.”