Eye-sore Wheat Ridge motel where Elvis stayed is being demolished
Apr 9, 2026, 4:30 PM
You’ve likely driven by and seen the sign a thousand times, but soon a notorious Denver-area motel will be nothing but a memory.
The American Motel along Interstate 70, that once hosted Elvis Presley before becoming one of the Denver area’s worst magnets for crime, is being torn down.
Demolition of the motel, situated northwest of the Kipling Street interchange, began this week. The motel closed last July.
The 5.8-acre property is owned by Terrapin Investments, which paid $9 million for the site in January 2023. A 335-unit apartment complex is planned for the location.
The motel was known to passing drivers for its gigantic American flag and low nightly rate sign. But it also carried a colorful history that stretched back decades, including a past stay by Elvis Presley.
In its later years, the American Motel became synonymous with criminal activity. A fatal shooting of an armed man by Lakewood police followed a two-hour standoff at the motel in January 2020.
Not all memories of the motel are dark. Longtime Wheat Ridge resident Bonnie Botham, a former DJ for a Denver radio station who used the on-air name Jennifer Page, recalled dancing at the motel in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The demolition is being handled by Brighton-based American Demolition.
