Iconic motel gets modern revival

In 2017, when Arlington business owner and philanthropist Sam Mahrouq bought the Division Street property next to one of his used car dealerships, custody of the dilapidated 1960s motel it housed came with it. Demolishing it and his car lot would pave the way for a bigger, nicer dealership on the southeast corner of Division and Collins. That’s just what Mahrouq intended to do.

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Until he didn’t.

Though Mahrouq didn’t have any ties to the mid-century motor court that sat along the old Bankhead Highway, it turned out that plenty of other people did.

This is the tale of how a car guy with a big heart and deep pockets, found himself in the hotel business with a lot of help from friends and a lot of hope that this project will change Arlington forever.

A GOOD J.R. EWING

Sam Mahrouq grew up watching his school-teacher father, day trade at the stock market in their hometown of Amman, Jordan. Mahrouq watched him make more money in one day than several months of his father’s teacher salary combined. Enamored with the television show “Dallas” and armed with the idea that business and trading were for him, he set his sights on the University of Texas at Arlington.

“I wanted to come here and be the good version of Larry Hagman,” said Mahrouq.

He didn’t waste any time.

“I needed a job, obviously, when I was in college to support myself, so I started buying and selling cars,” said Mahrouq. “Then I started exporting cars to the Middle East, and by the time I graduated, I was shipping about 20-30 cars a month and making a very good living at it – almost $1,000 to $2,000 a car. I was making more in a month at the time than some people were making in an entire year.”

After graduation, Arlington’s Division Street happened to be a great place for Mahrouq and fellow UTA alum Walid Joulani to open car lots. For one thing, Arlington’s General Motors plant sat between Division and Abram Streets. Because Division Street had been part of the Bankhead Highway, the country’s first transcontinental route, the road was populated with businesses and buildings that had once catered to motorists.

Joulani and Mahrouq were also witnessing Division Street’s next renaissance. The kind that happens to old roads when new highways are built somewhere else.

“Division Street used to be the street where all the franchise dealers were,” said Joulani. “People would come to Division from all over the metroplex to buy cars. But when the new highways got built, I-30 and I-20, the new franchise dealers went over there. We bought property on I-20 and built dealerships there but kept the used car dealerships on Division.”

Since the early nineties, that was Division Street’s fate and that’s what Mahrouq and Joulani used Division Street for: used car lots. While Arlington’s entertainment district grew and the downtown was revitalized, Division Street remained largely the same.

The car business, or rather multiple car businesses, had been good to the UTA friends. Eventually, Joulani joined Mahrouq Enterprises International, or MEI, as the Executive Vice President. MEI now owns 25 companies on three continents, including eight car dealerships, an auto-financing division, a technology company, an insurance carrier, and real estate holdings.

Mahrouq’s Dollar Car Sales, the car lot next to the old hotel, brought in several million a year but did not have a large building on the property. Razing both properties would allow for a reconditioning facility, a mechanic shop, and a larger dealership.

There was just one problem.

A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS

Every time Sam Mahrouq or Walid Joulani had a conversation about their plans for the old Caravan Hotel property, someone countered with a memory.

“Everybody has a story about the Caravan,” said Joulani. “There’s a movie filmed there. A lot of people, when they first moved to Arlington, stayed there. The more things started coming up about the property, the more Sam felt guilty of demolishing the property because it has such a unique history. It’s a big part of Arlington.”

So they came up with Plan B, which included keeping the hotel after all and remodeling both it and the car lot.

“The more we got into the details and we looked at the cost and it was so expensive,” said Joulani. “It was going to be like throwing good money after bad investment because the ceilings are so low, it’s impossible to get the big size room and remodel.”

“The rooms were way too small by today’s standards,” said Mahrouq. “We felt like if we did that maybe we would put maybe 15-20 million dollars into a building that would never really be that attractive, especially when you incorporate that into a dealership.”

So Mahrouq reached out to his realtor and friend, Georgie Zang of Zang | Adams Real Estate.

“That’s when I went to Georgie and said, ‘Georgie can you help me with this? How do I maintain the DNA of the Caravan, the footprint of the Caravan, and keep my business?’” said Mahrouq.

“We very much work with the city to help take on projects that can be challenging for the city,” said Zang. “Mayor Williams was in office at the time, and he was like, ‘We’ve got to get something done in this area, it’s a problem for the city.’ So in talking with them, we began to explore how we can solve a problem for them and solve a problem for the city.”

“It’s a very high profile, very high traffic-count corner. On the southwest side is downtown Arlington. Part of the challenge Arlington has had is linking the entertainment district with downtown. Both have very different feels, very different flavors.”

But according to Mahrouq, one thing was certain: no one but him was excited about his new corner car lot.

“We consulted with a lot of people in Arlington, the city council, and other stakeholders in the city, and a dealership was not where we would get a lot of favor – people would not favor another dealership in that corner,” said Mahrouq.

Plan B was stalled.

BUT HOW?

While they looked at different options for several years, Zang said they always came back to the idea that the Caravan was such a cool place, but they could not make the numbers work to sustain a hotel.

After multiple concepts and renderings, they began to look at hotel management groups and Zang | Adams (including Georgie Zang, Jamie Adams and Kelsi Couture) zeroed in on Houston-based Valencia Hotel Group. The company’s portfolio includes six Texas luxury boutique hotels with attention to local details and a courtyard experience.

Zang | Adams arranged for Mahrouq and his team and others from the city to stay at Valencia’s Lubbock property.

“It was Mayor Ross at this point and we all went down there and looked at the hotel and thought, ‘We love how they deliver, we love how the hotel looks and the concept’,” said Zang. “There were more people thinking we love this, but how can we make this happen?”

One of those persons was Mahrouq.

“These motels at some point were a big part of America,” said Mahrouq. “Motor hotel, that’s where the word motel came from, where it’s easy to park at the hotel and you’re facing a courtyard, not going through a lobby. The Valencia hotel group is like a new take and new rendition of that classic concept, and that’s what we saw when we went to Lubbock. There were a lot of activities in the courtyard, lights, pool, people were gathering at the front of their doors watching what was going on at the pool and the courtyard.”

The Valencia Group told Mahrouq the courtyard concept would not work in conjunction with a car dealership.

“They said the only way you do it, is to demolish both and build a new concept that we can build on the Caravan DNA,” said Mahrouq.

He eventually agreed.

LEGACY

“It was a hard decision for us to make because it involved investing 54 million dollars and technically at its best-case scenario, will not make half of what the dealership makes in income,” said Mahrouq.

The old Caravan Motel will keep its iconic palm tree sign and re-open as the Caravan Court Hotel, a luxury, retro-style motor-court.

“The design for the Caravan Court project will highlight Arlington’s automotive history with nods to the Bankhead Highway, Division Street and General Motors,” said Roy Kretschmer, Chief Operations Officer for Valencia Hotel Group. “We’re going to honor the culture of the community while providing unparalleled guest experiences.”

The new Caravan Court Hotel, which will keep its iconic Division Street palm tree sign, will re-open in 2026 as a luxury retro-style motor court. The mid-century property will highlight Arlington’s automotive history with nods to the Bankhead Highway, Division Street, and General Motors.

“It’s very much about legacy,” said Mahrouq. “If it was about money, we would have probably built a dealership. But to pay homage, in my view, to Division Street, which made me very successful, to pay homage to the city of Arlington that’s adopted me. I’m a product of UTA, I came here as a foreign student when I was 18 without any money and thank God I’ve really been very successful from being a dealer on Division Street, so I almost wanted to give a gift to the street and the city.”

“Not many people would do what Sam Mahrouq and Walid are doing,” said Zang. “They would not stop a business making multiple millions of dollars a year to bulldoze and put a hotel. They just wouldn’t do it. These guys are and it’s going to really domino. It’s going to be the biggest investment in that section of town they’ve ever seen and the city has a lot to thank them for.”

The city says the project will help Arlington move forward on something that’s been a city policy objective for 20 years: support private investment on Division Street to link the entertainment district to downtown.

“At some point, Division Street has been an old beat-up street and everything else has improved in the city – Collins and Abram look very nice,” said Mahrouq. “Many other streets have been modernized with new businesses and pedestrian-friendly environments, the only exception was Division Street. Hopefully, it will start to encourage others to reconsider their properties.”

“This city is an exceptional place,” said Zang, “but sometimes the only visibility to this city is down these corridors. If you were coming in and you weren’t from Arlington, and you were going to a game, you could come down 360 and head west on Division and pretty soon you would think ‘What the heck is this?’ By redeveloping and improving some of these major corridors, it makes a difference for future development.”

Mahrouq hopes the hotel, with its walkability to the stadiums and downtown, will mean people will spend more time and money in Arlington. Zang also believes the Arlington ISD Center for Visual and Performing Arts will draw guests.

“The number of people coming through there and programs and competitions are off the charts,” said Zang. “You’ve got this beautiful state-of-the-art facility across the street, so I think you’re gonna see people wanting to stay there for that.”

The hotel will have 145 rooms including seven suites. The restaurant will be named the Bel Air, after the Chevrolet model that was produced at Arlington’s GM plant. The hotel’s rooftop bar will have views of the stadiums. Caravan Court will also offer a martini bar and a poolside bar and restaurant.

“We’re very underserved from a food and beverage standpoint still,” said Zang. “This is going to be an easily accessible place to get in for lunches, dinners and cocktails, so even if you’re not staying there, it’s going to be a really fun place to go.”

Mahrouq plans to collaborate with the UTA Art Department on some glass artwork and light fixtures.

“We want UTA to build us several concepts to show what they can produce for us,” said Mahrouq. “The idea is to celebrate Arlington. The past, the current and the future.”

“We all kept at it. I think that’s why it’s such a beloved project,” said Zang.