The stars at night are big and bright...

The stars at night are big and bright...
The stars at night are big and bright...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Kiss A FW Landmark Goodbye?

From Fort Worth Weekly:



The largest and most eye-catching motel sign on Jacksboro Highway might be going away soon.  The Caravan Inn owners are toying with the idea of selling the property to a gas station chain. The recession has taken a toll on the motel business since 2007.

Manufacturing a similar sign today would cost a small fortune, Patel said. The sign might be valuable to someone who happens to have a motel named Caravan Inn. Or maybe a collector is looking for a really, really large piece of yard art. Now that would make an impressive collectible.

2 comments:

an Donalbane said...

I was talking to the owner of a lodging property on the south side of FTW recently - apparently the lodging companies (Comfort, Hawthorne, Best Western, et al) will grant franchises with no protection of territories for pre-existing franchisees, which in the last three or four years resulted in massive industry over-capacity.

Then, exacerbating matters, the franchisor starts raising standards (staffing ratios, Wi-Fi infrastructure, expanded breakfast hours) that result in higher expense ratios for the operator, often without a corresponding revenue boost.

It would be a shame to see the Caravan go. Racetrac just put in a new store @ 199 & Roberts Cut Off, but that was a dumpy intersection to begin with.

todd said...

That place is a dump and smells like curry. (Wonder why.) Good riddance!