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CBS 7 Story Leads To More Hotels In Monahans
CBS 7 Story Leads To More Hotels In Monahans 9/20/12
fbotlon@cbs7.com
CBS 7 News Reporter
August 20, 2012
Monahans, TX - After our report went nationwide on a paralyzed war hero claiming to be mistreated at a Best Western hotel in Monahans, officials said they're receiving calls from hotel chains around the country wanting to build in the city.
Monahans Mayor David Cutbirth stated that the story from CBS 7 about the Best Western hotel in Monahans mistreating an Iraq war veteran is now giving them hope in the limited housing situation.
"We’ve been contacted by about 5 different chains in the last few weeks. I think the negative story that came out on one of our local hotels…I think that may turn out to be a positive for Monahans. A lot of people looked at that and said ‘wow… they’re charging $280 a night in Monahans, TX. What is in Monahans, TX?’ Well we have a boom going on there,” said Monahans Mayor David Cutbirth.
In Monahans, hotels are at full capacity. City officials stated it's taking a toll on their economic development plans.
“Monahans is suffering … we host a lot of events here and schools and teams bring their kidos [sic] here. There's no place to stay right now. So we've been [sic] not able to host events in just the past 6 months, because there's no hotel rooms," said Morse Haynes, Director of Monahans Economic Development.
Haynes and Mayor Cutbirth stated that with more hotel chains, it would help bring down the price of hotel rooms and increase opportunities for tourism. The city is in such need for new hotels, they are even offering a monetary incentive.
"So if you have a 100 apartments, we'll spend $100,000 helping you put that in. If you're going to bring us 80 rooms at a hotel down here, we'll spend $80,000 helping you bring that to our community," said Cutbirth.
The mayor stated there are possibilities of new apartment complexes and oil field man camps coming to the city in addition to hotels. City officials stated they expect to close the deal on at least 2 hotel chains in a few weeks.