A motel in the Las Vegas Trail area of ​​Fort Worth could soon be transformed.

FORT WORTH (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Tarrant County and Fort Worth leaders are set to decide this week on a multi-million dollar revitalization of a struggling real estate and motel area.

Approval of the first $8 million for the purchase and renovation of the Express Inn Hotel in Fort Worth’s Las Vegas Trail neighborhood is expected Tuesday by Tarrant County Commissioners. The Fort Worth City Council will also hear a report on the project on Tuesday, with a vote on the $2 million bail expected next month.

The project will convert an 83-room motel along I-30 into 55 permanent housing units called Casa de Suenos. Low-income families, victims of domestic violence and the homeless can find suitable permanent housing in the development.

The rehab will also turn crime and drug-related property into a part of the city that fights both.

“For us, accepting it as permanent family assisted housing is a big part of that,” said Michael Crane, city council spokesman for the area. “We can clean it up. We can even make it better for the people who live there.”

Crane is also on the board of LVT Rise, an organization working to revitalize the area.

The county will use funds from the American Plan of Rescue Act. County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, who said he was often called to a motel when he was a cop on the east side of the city, described the potential for the area’s renewal as more of a buying impact.

“This project is a way to bring the area to life, to really bring some skin to the game and to say, ‘You know what, we’re not just going to stand by and watch this decline, we’re going to do something to change it around.’ ,'” He said.

The total cost of the project is over $12.6 million. Fort Worth Housing Solutions is expected to receive an additional $1.9 million at a board meeting later this month and seek charitable donations to cover it.

Construction could start in May, with full occupancy possible by May 2024.

The housing model has already been used in Fort Worth with the Casa de Esperanza near I-820 in the northern part of the city. This former motel was quickly refurbished within two months at the end of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, with 119 apartments for those who were chronically homeless, disabled or elderly at risk of contracting COVID-19.

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The post A motel in the Las Vegas Trail area of ​​Fort Worth could soon be transformed.

first appeared on Texas Standard News.

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