HOUSTON – The Texas Medical Centers newest hotel is just a few months away from its grand opening but construction was halted this week as The Blossom Hotel’s owner decided to focus on helping Houstonians struggling after this week’s winter weather.
The general manager of the hotel, Pete Shim, told KPRC 2 the owner Charlie Wang, who also owns a construction company, is not one to seek the spotlight so he spoke on his behalf about their efforts.
“He heard that some of the employees were having problems because they had pipes that broke in their house and Charlie said let’s go ahead and send some plumbers out to go fix it and we gathered up some of the supplies that we had here,” Shim said.
He said it quickly became evident just how many people were hurting and Wang decided to expand his efforts.
“He got five teams together, he put them together and sent them out all over the city of Houston to just help folks for free. He’s been buying the supplies, providing the labor and making sure the employees are paid,” Shim said.
So far, they have been able to help about 120 families dealing with busted pipes but one of the biggest issues has been finding supplies.
“Mr. Wang has sent eight to 10 individuals to different stores, Home Depot and plumbing supplies stores just to make sure we could find supplies,” Shim said.
According to Shim, they have received over a thousand requests for help and plan on doing what they can as long as supplies are available.