Tourist Motel Gets Major Facelift

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Story Published: Feb 1, 2010 at 6:44 PM PDT

By Melissa Wagner

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Yakima - Broken windows, holes in the wall and mold in the ceiling. KIMA found it all at the Tourist Motel on north first street back in November. Now the owner said he wants to shut the place down for an entire month, fix up the rooms, and make it more attractive to a higher class of visitor.

"I'm changing everything inside. New paint, if there's any damage, finish it, new carpet, new bathroom floor, new vanity, new toilet bowls, new plugs and everything," said Rajiv Sauson, Owner of the Tourist Motel.

This was the mess we uncovered a couple of months ago, when city code enforcers threatened to shut the motel down for safety reasons. Sauson says the problems came with the motel when he bought it in the fall of 2008.

He asked the bank for $100,000 to remodel the place, but when it came time for closing he was told that money would now have to be used in the down payment.

" So my hands were tied. And you know it was recession time. There was no money to remodel the place.," said Rajiv.

He's since sold a second motel and says he'll use that money to fix up the Tourist. About $80,000 worth. He told KIMA the plan includes new windows, doors with a standard card lock system, WiFi in all the rooms, and 16 new security cameras.

It's not just construction at the motel. The owner also plans to change the name. No longer will it be the Tourist Motel. He's going to call it the Sunshine Motel. But will it be enough to bring in the sort of clientele he needs to make a profit and clean up this place?

" I know I can do it."

But Rajiv said he can't do it alone, " That's why I put in these cameras, to secure it. But if still something goes on, the city has to help me out."

He's hoping once the motel reopens in March, there will be fewer calls to the police. And fewer reasons for them to step in. The construction crew doing the remodeling at the motel is from Victory Outreach. They tell me the money they make on the job will go back into the church, to fight homelessness, gangs and substance abuse.

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