A Best Western Hotel In Florida May Become Affordable Housing For Floridians

Photo byBilly Hathorn at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Many Floridians are quite aware of a shortage of affordable housing in the Sunshine State. According to the Florida Policy Institute, affordable housing is one of the top priorities of Floridians since Florida has become one of the least affordable places to live in the nation. Therefore, those who live in Orlando may be interested to know that Best Western Hotel in the city could become affordable housing.

About The Best Western In Question: The Best Western, located at 2014 W. Colonial Drive offers rooms that, as of this writing, run around $100 - $120.

The facility earns 3.4 out of 5 stars on Google reviews and reviewers tend to have mixed experiences. A reviewer named Veda wrote in part:

"...We were looking for something clean and small, nothing extraordinary as we are in town for a wedding and will not be spending much time at the hotel, besides to shower and sleep. The rooms were filthy, towels had hairs in them and were stained brown. The shower had mystery brown spots splattered throughout and the door lock was so dirty you could feel mystery dirt/grease ... on your hands afterward..."

However, a reviewer named Diane had a good experience, writing, in part:

"My mistake was reading the previous reviews before our stay. We were there for one night for (the) Rolling Stones concert. That hotel was so clean and manicured, from the parking lot to the landscaping..."

The Potential For A Conversion To Affordable Housing: Aryn Spahr, founder of the SL Capital Group, is under contract to buy the property, pending approval by the city to convert it to housing.

If approved, the building would be converted to "a 110-unit attainable housing apartment facility." The restaurant currently on-site, Taste of Chengdu, would reportedly be preserved.