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Coming Home to Manilatown: I-Hotel Opens (2 of 3)
At the opening – a donor preview was held two days earlier – invited guests and journalists were given a tour of the 15-storey housing facility, much larger than the original tenement-structured hotel.
The resurrected building has 105 units: 88 studio and 16 one-bedroom apartments and a manager unit. It also includes a 1,800-square foot community room on the third floor with a senior nutrition program operated by Self Help for The Elderly; a 1,700-square foot rooftop garden; and a 2,400-square foot cultural center on the ground floor with art and photos commemorating the I-Hotel Struggle. The cultural center is named the Dado and Maria Banatao Education Center, after the very wealthy entrepreneurial couple from Silicon Valley, whose husband developed semiconductor technology for computers.
The Legacy Wall on the ground floor, a glass display engraved with the names of donors and supporters, overlays the bricks preserved from the original foundation of the old I-Hotel.
The project is receiving Project Rental Assistance from the HUD Section 202 program that makes the rents affordable to low income seniors, who are required to pay only pay 30% of their income for rent. This is considered fair for the elders who paid $50 per month rent during the early 1900s. Over 7,000 people applied for housing. Applicant preference will be given for manongs , former tenants, and World War II Veterans.
