In 2018,  Jonathan Morris and Allen Mederos purchased an old warehouse that was formerly used for producing and selling dry ice in Fort Worth’s Cultural District.

A year later – the duo asked the community for support by showing up to a city council meeting as they made the case to have the property rezoned for a boutique hotel.

And it worked.

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The Fort Worth City council voted unanimously to rezone the property thus Hotel Dryce was created.

“Developing a hotel in Fort Worth has been a dream of mine for several years now. I’ve always thought of it as an opportunity to present the city to visitors in a way that allows them to experience Fort Worth the way we do as locals,” Morris told Black Enterprise.

Hotel Dryce is expected to be a three-story, 21-room hotel in Fort Worth’s Cultural District. There will be a lobby bar that will be open to the public as well as guests and a large outdoor courtyard.

Morris told Star Telegram that he envisions a space that is not only unique but will become a gathering space for the community as well as a place for visitors to stay.

“There’s not a lot of hotels specifically that are able to tell a story of Fort Worth that connect to the city in a way that I get to on an everyday basis,” Morris said. “We wanted to be able to create something that was small enough to really give us the opportunity to introduce the city to visitors and also create this space that […] is a gathering spot for people in Fort Worth.”

The hotel is expected to open by the end of 2020.