{"id":440829,"date":"2025-12-11T20:07:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/440829\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:07:19","slug":"famous-dallas-architects-motel-is-now-an-infamous-criminal-hub-on-harry-hines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/440829\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Dallas architect\u2019s motel is now an \u2018infamous criminal hub\u2019 on Harry Hines"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a minute since someone called me \u201cfake news.\u201d Forgot how hilarious it sounds when it\u2019s said seriously.<\/p>\n

It happened early Tuesday afternoon at the Cole Manor Motel on Harry Hines Boulevard, where I\u2019d gone to check out a joint that city attorneys allege has long been \u201ca storefront for prostitution, drug use, and the sale and manufacturing of illicit drugs.\u201d A Dallas police car was pulling out as I was turning in. <\/p>\n

Just inside the shabby, square-shaped motor court whose swimming pool<\/a> was long ago filled in, a half-masked security guard who appeared to be wearing a bulletproof vest helped a woman roll a new mattress into a dark room. He directed me to the front office, where a young woman stood behind thick, murky glass that made her look out of focus. <\/p>\n

I asked who the owner was. She said she didn\u2019t know. There were notes taped to the glass: \u201cNO ID, No Room.\u201d \u201cToilet Tissue Roll $1.00.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"As<\/p>\n

As I was pulling into Cole Manor on Tuesday afternoon, a Dallas police car was exiting. A DPD spokesperson said it was for a “routine investigation” but offered no further specifics about the visit.<\/p>\n

Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n

The security guard went to get another woman, who acted like she was in charge. I asked about the city\u2019s lawsuit, filed in April, which calls Cole Manor an \u201cinfamous crime hub.\u201d I mentioned the court order signed last month that requires the motel\u2019s operator to pay the city nearly $1 million in civil penalties and demands the motel be secured by Dec. 21 with, among dozens of other things, a vehicle access gate and a license plate reader.<\/p>\n

Opinion<\/p>\n

Get smart opinions on the topics North Texans care about.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFake news,\u201d the woman snapped before locking herself behind the bulletproof glass. I offered to go to the car to get legal docs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to disclose any information about that,\u201d she said. At which point, the guard suggested that maybe this interview was over.<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t visited the motel since Christmas Eve 2018<\/a>, when it made Preservation Dallas\u2019 list of this city\u2019s most-endangered historic buildings<\/a> \u2014 given its age (it opened in 1946 as El Sombrero Motor Courts<\/a>), architect (the revered Charles Dilbeck<\/a>) and proximity to an ever-expanding Medical District devouring surrounding properties. Dilbeck, responsible for hundreds of whimsical residences from Oak Cliff to Preston Hollow, revolutionized the look, feel and function of the post-war motor lodge, best evidenced by his most beloved local lodge, the Belmont Hotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s much to say about Cole Manor\u2019s significance and past, which includes countless crimes dating back to a night in January 1950, when both local newspapers reported that three men stuck a gun in the face of the auto court\u2019s manager and stole $300. That was the first time, but far from the last, the motel made news.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A March 25, 1958, Dallas Morning News story — about a “pants bandit” hitting, among other locations, the El Sombrero Motor Courts — was one of several crime stories from the 1950s that ran in this newspaper.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

But first we must reckon with its present \u2014 and its future \u2014 as Cole Manor heads to trial next month. Because property owner Manor Hospitality Corp.\u2019s attorney says this isn\u2019t his client\u2019s fault or problem. The motel\u2019s longtime owner instead blames its rap sheet on the operator who\u2019s allegedly been booted from the motel and is nowhere to be found, even in court.<\/p>\n

The city doesn\u2019t see it that way, citing sections of the Texas Local Government Code<\/a> that place responsibility at the feet of the property owner. Jill Haning, the city\u2019s deputy chief of the litigation division, said via email that when this case hits a courtroom next month, \u201cThe city will ask the court to either appoint a receiver to take possession and control of the property to abate the violations and ongoing criminal activity or issue an order requiring the property owner to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

In court documents, city attorneys say they\u2019ve been working with the motel\u2019s owner since 2002 to identify and eradicate the crime and code violations \u2014 only to have the issues re-emerge time and again. That includes 28 police calls in the last three years, including numerous aggravated assaults, drug manufacturing and, police say, the shooting death of a 69-year-old woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the saying goes,\u201d says the complaint, \u201cinsanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the biggest crimes at the Cole Manor Motel was the removal a few years ago of the sign planted along Harry Hines when the motor court was renamed decades ago.<\/p>\n

Daniel Carde \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also says federal and local law enforcement in February \u201ctook down a seven-person drug trafficking operation that operated out of the Cole Manor Motel for at least a year.\u201d Per the suit, a search warrant resulted in five arrests and the recovery of six guns, fentanyl, crack and $20,000. The city finally sued Manor Hospitality Corp. and its operator, Bhumiya3 LLC, in April. <\/p>\n

Bhumiya3 appears to be one person<\/a>, Irving resident Nilam Patel, whom I couldn\u2019t reach. He also never responded to the lawsuit and didn\u2019t appear in court last month, resulting in a judge slapping him with a pile of code violations totaling $960,256.<\/p>\n

Manor Hospitality Corp.\u2019s president is Mike Patel<\/a>, whose number is the same as Cole Manor\u2019s and doesn\u2019t work anyway, in case you were considering making reservations. Patel has owned the Cole Manor for more than 25 years. <\/p>\n

I asked Lance \u201cLuke\u201d Beshara, Manor Hospitality\u2019s Fort Worth-based attorney, how long Bhumiya3 was running the motel on his client\u2019s behalf. He said he didn\u2019t know, but noted that its lease was terminated after the city filed its suit. When I asked who was running the place now, he said he didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably a new tenant,\u201d he said. \u201cI am sure my client is trying to find someone who wants to keep it open. They\u2019re not going to let the property sit vacant. That would be a terrible idea, A vacant motel? You really think it\u2019s going to stay vacant? People would break in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beshara said his client met with Dallas\u2019 attorneys earlier this year, at which point, he said, Manor Hospitality first became aware of the city\u2019s numerous allegations. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d I said, \u201cyou\u2019re telling me your client was not aware of what was going on at the motel?\u201d<\/p>\n

Beshara said that was \u201cnot a fair question.\u201d I asked why.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The swimming pool that used to sit in the middle of the motor court was long ago paved over.<\/p>\n

Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, my client was not aware of any of these incidents,\u201d he said. \u201cLater on the city did send a letter referencing its nuisance ordinance and provided a list of certain alleged offenses. They said we have these reports. We got a letter with unsubstantiated offenses that supposedly occurred and were somehow related to my client\u2019s property.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that after a meeting with city attorneys, Patel hired a security guard and installed a gate, though where, I have no idea. And I drive by the Cole Manor at least once a day every day. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no need to try this here. A temporary injunction hearing set for Jan. 8, to be followed by a trial 18 days later, will help decide the future of the Cole Manor. <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New apartments are going in behind the Cole Manor Motel on Empire Central Drive.<\/p>\n

Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n

As for its past, I called architect Willis Winters, Dallas\u2019 former parks department director, to confirm the motel is a Dilbeck. \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he said. Winters would know, as author of a forthcoming Texas A&M University biography of the architect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell by the architectural vocabulary of the building, how the fa\u00e7ade was very complex, visually interesting,\u201d Winters said of the motel. \u201cIt engages your eye as you\u2019re trying to understand why it\u2019s doing what it\u2019s doing. The octagonal windows, the roof overhangs, the cupolas along the roof, the vents. All these items he added for visual texture and visual character to draw interest to the building and make people driving by in 1946 want to turn in there and check in for the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winters said he used to drive past the Cole Manor every day, but turned in for the first time earlier this year. He stayed only as long as it took him to turn around and leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a minute since someone called me \u201cfake news.\u201d Forgot how hilarious it sounds when it\u2019s said…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":440830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,11890,4219,1596,26392,4329,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-440829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-commentary","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-northwest-dallas","13":"tag-real-estate","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115702744502955062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}