July 29–FORT WORTH — HRI Properties, a New Orleans-based hotel developer, plans a $52 million Westin-branded hotel directly across University Drive from the Modern Art Museum that will serve as the primary hotel for the new 14,000-seat multipurpose arena planned for Will Rogers Memorial Center.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Aug. 4 on a 10-year economic development agreement that will grant the city’s 7 percent hotel tax collected on the project to the developer. The total incentive cannot exceed $7.8 million.

The council heard about the hotel plans at its pre-council meeting Tuesday.

The six-story, 250-room hotel will be on University Drive between Morton and Bledsoe streets. The plan calls for about 15,000 square feet of meeting space, which includes a 6,000-square-foot ballroom, 7,000 square feet for two junior ballrooms, and about 2,000 square feet for meeting rooms.

It will also have a full-service restaurant and a three-story parking garage for 210 cars. The hotel is expected to have 130 full-time employees by Dec. 31, 2018.

Under the terms of the proposed incentive package, HRI will be required to enter into room block agreements for events at the Will Rogers center and the new arena for 10 years.

As part of the agreement, once HRI buys the property needed for the project, it will deed the land to the city. The city, in turn, will lease the land to HRI for 25 years. Annual rent will be $100 for the first 10 years.

Within six months of the final grant payment at the end of 10 years, the city will exercise an option that requires HRI to buy back the land. If HRI doesn’t buy the land, rent on the ground lease will go up to fair market value for the remaining 15 years of the lease.

“This an excellent project and much, much needed in the museum and Will Rogers districts,” Mayor Betsy Price said. “The numbers bode well for both parties involved.”

Hal Fairbanks, vice president of acquisitions for HRI Properties, said the company is negotiating a franchise agreement for a full-service Westin hotel at the site.

He declined to discuss at what stage land acquisition is in, but said the company wants to start construction on the hotel in early 2016 and be completed by the end of 2017, two years before the arena is expected to be completed.

About half of the property is now parking lots, but it also includes Dos Gringos restaurant.

“There are properties there,” Fairbanks said of the site. “Potentially there would be some demolition for our project of existing structures.”

There may be room for expansion at the site, he said. “We’re working on other development plans for the area.”

The hotel will fall into a so-called “view corridor” of downtown from the museums, but Fairbanks said the hotel shouldn’t affect that.

“We’ve had a number of conversations with the museums in the area,” he said. “I don’t think they have any objections.”

Construction on the new arena is expected to start in January 2017, and it is expected to open in December 2019, according to a city report released Tuesday.

The city expects to enter into a formal agreement this fall with Events Facilities Fort Worth to operate the facility, the report said. Under the agreement, Events Facilities Fort Worth will have control of the arena’s design and construction as well as naming and concession rights.

The city plans to lease the arena to the nonprofit organization for 30 years, plus four 10-year options.

HRI has completed 68 large-scale projects, including 4,535 apartments, 4,116 hotel rooms and 1.3 million square feet of office and retail space, with a total funding value of $2 billion, according to its website.

The company was responsible for the $20 million renovation of Blackstone Courtyard by Marriott hotel in downtown Fort Worth that reopened in 1999.

Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727

Twitter: @SandraBakerFWST