Unfinished business

RAYMONDVILLE - From Neil Patel's new hotel, he can see Ricardo de la Mora's construction project choked in weeds, its walls scarred with gang graffiti.

This month, Patel said he plans to open La Quinta Inns & Suites next to his Best Western Inn at the intersection of Expressway 83 and Hidalgo Avenue.

But nobody knows when de la Mora will complete work on his hotel project just north of Raymondville's city limit sign, Willacy County Commissioner Eddie Chapa said Friday.

"It's very, very sad," Chapa said of de la Mora's project.

Last year, de la Mora planned to build a hotel and restaurant, gas station and health clinic on his 20-acre site, Chapa said.

But construction stopped late last year, he said.

That's when federal authorities deported de la Mora to Mexico because his work visa expired, said Ernesto Valencia, de la Mora's former brother-in-law who works at the Real Azteca Inn in Donna.

De la Mora could not be reached for comment.

"We needed to add hotels because we knew we had expansion going on," Chapa said. "Our little hotels are constantly packed."

Visitors are coming to town to see relatives held in two prisons that stand near a 3,000-bed detention center for illegal immigrants, Chapa said.

"We get a lot of business from the prisons because relatives come here to visit," Chapa said.

Others look for hotels when they come to work the cotton and sorghum harvests, he said.

Patel's new hotel "will pick up some of the business," Chapa said.

Later this month, Patel said he plans to open a 60-room La Quinta Inn that will include four apartments and a meeting room.

The hotel will create as many as 12 jobs here, said Patel, who bought his Best Western Inn in 2004.

"It's a stopping point," Patel said of Raymondville. "It's a thoroughfare. All of these travelers are heading toward South Padre Island or Mexico."

Officials don't know when de la Mora will finish work on his hotel, Chapa said.

"We had it checked and it's still structurally sound," Chapa said.

So far, the damage is confined to gang graffiti defacing its walls and weeds choking the project site.

County officials have not taken steps to condemn the site, Chapa said.

"But eventually, if this thing isn't done in the coming year, decisions will have to be made if it becomes a health hazard," Chapa said.