9. Public Hearing and ACTION on Resolution Number 2017-002, in support of the El Jardin Housing Partners, LP, named El Jardin Lofts, for a proposed development for affordable rental housing in Brownsville, Texas and identifying El Jardin Lofts as contributing more than any other development to the concerted revitalization efforts of the City and authorizing such other actions necessary or convenient to carry out this resolution. (Constanza Miner – Planning Director of Operations)
By Juan Montoya
![]()
The stage is set for the decrepit El Jardin Hotel in downtown Brownsville to become provide affordable rental housing to the downtown area.
On Tuesday, the city commission will hold a public hearing anf consider taking action to sponsor a request from El Jardin Housing Partners, LP, for its application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) for 2017 Competitive 9 percent Housing Tax Credits for El Jardin Lofts.
We have always commented that the established exercise in bringing in cyclists from the suburbs once or twice a month to "revitalize" downtown Brownsville was simplistic and ignored the critical organic relationship between a permanent population there and the downtown area. Unless ther eis a stable population that shops there, lives there, and patronizes the downtown businesses, the monthly bicycle excursions are an exercise in futility.
We have heard that Mayor Tony Martinez had opposed the El Jardin Lofts. But we also heard that the investors who bought the old hotel were going through with their plan whether Martinez approved of it or not.
How long can the city afford to put up with the decaying structure? Just recently – because it is empty – vandals are said to have started a fir eon its rood that spread through the top section. It may be a small start to bring people to live downtown, but it's a start. it's better than to see the city's core stagnate and be taken over by transients and crack heads as it was getting to be.
By Juan Montoya
The stage is set for the decrepit El Jardin Hotel in downtown Brownsville to become provide affordable rental housing to the downtown area.On Tuesday, the city commission will hold a public hearing anf consider taking action to sponsor a request from El Jardin Housing Partners, LP, for its application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) for 2017 Competitive 9 percent Housing Tax Credits for El Jardin Lofts.
We have always commented that the established exercise in bringing in cyclists from the suburbs once or twice a month to "revitalize" downtown Brownsville was simplistic and ignored the critical organic relationship between a permanent population there and the downtown area. Unless ther eis a stable population that shops there, lives there, and patronizes the downtown businesses, the monthly bicycle excursions are an exercise in futility.
We have heard that Mayor Tony Martinez had opposed the El Jardin Lofts. But we also heard that the investors who bought the old hotel were going through with their plan whether Martinez approved of it or not.
How long can the city afford to put up with the decaying structure? Just recently – because it is empty – vandals are said to have started a fir eon its rood that spread through the top section. It may be a small start to bring people to live downtown, but it's a start. it's better than to see the city's core stagnate and be taken over by transients and crack heads as it was getting to be.