The Thunderbird Motel has sat vacant on Aurura Ave. ever since ever since Seattle Police Chief John Diaz declared the inn a chronic nuisance property in 2010 and the place was foreclosed on.
Now, Catholic Housing Services, an arm of Catholic Community Services, has received funding from the state and the city to rebuild the complex and try to do some good with it.
Image from Google street view map
CCS Division Director Dan Wise made the announcement recently:
I am please to announce that Catholic Housing Services receiving funding from the State of Washington and the City of Seattle to build 71 units of affordable permanent housing on the site of the of old Thunderbird Motel. We hope to start demolition and construction in the fall of 2012 and would move tenants into the building about 12 months after the start of construction, in 2013.
The Aurora renaissance continues as this project will join the impending hotel project expected to make the Fremont-area of the major road look a whole lot nicer.
CCS already runs the nearby Aloha Inn, where residents work in exchange for room and board.