Vintage Car Museum Revs Up in Hazel Dell
Owner putting his collection, working with Beaches, food carts to offer eats, drinks
Ron Wade said he hopes his car museum, a taproom and Clark County’s first-ever food cart pod will become a hub of social and economic activity — and breathe new life into Hazel Dell when the complex opens in the spring. The neighborhood is welcoming the project with open arms.
“I think it’s a welcome change to the area,” said Dellan Redjou, board president of the Salmon Creek/Hazel Dell Business Association. “It’s going to generate interest and bring in some new people that normally wouldn’t come here.”
Plans include covered seating, a taproom, a nearby stage for musical acts and ample parking for car shows, rallies and other events. At least one food cart is already using the site during midday hours.
Andrew Buckner said he is planning to park his food cart, Esoteric BBQ, at the facility when it fully opens, likely next spring. When he was first approached about the idea early this year, he said he wasn’t sure about the location.
He parked his truck at the site — which is still under construction — for the first week of September as a test run. Business was slow at first, but picked up as the week went on. And Buckner said he got a lot of positive feedback from people who were excited to see his truck in the area.
“I had tons of people track me down after that week and say, ‘we saw you parked on 78th …’ So it’s definitely a very visible spot,” he said.
Still, Buckner said he’s surprised that this corner of Hazel Dell is likely to house Vancouver’s first-ever food cart pod.
“I would have thought that more in the heart of downtown would make sense,” he said. “But with everything that they’re doing and the people that are involved … this is going to be its own attraction.”
For Redjou, it’s about time the neighborhood attracted some attention. In the last couple of years, she said, Hazel Dell has finally started to see some of the growth and redevelopment that has buoyed other parts of Vancouver in the past decade.
Until now, development has been slow, Redjou said, in part because of the recent recession. There are local factors, too. There’s a common perception that businesses within the Clark Regional Wastewater District, formerly the Hazel Dell Sewer District, incur higher sewer fees than those in other areas, she said.
“I’m not sure it actually is all that different, but there’s certainly been a lot of confusion about it,” Redjou said.
