Hotel Online 
News for the Hospitality Executive


 
Hilton, Marriot Consortiums Competing for Construction
 of a 1,000 Plus Room Hotel at Dallas Convention Center;
 Neither Likely to Be Built Without City Financial Support
The Dallas Morning News
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Sep. 30, 2003 - A team of investors, developers and architects said Monday that it will compete for construction of a downtown Dallas convention hotel.

Hilton Hotels Corp. would run the 1,000- to 1,200-room hotel to be built next to the Dallas Convention Center on an 8.4-acre site at Young and Lamar streets.

This is the second convention hotel proposal. Marriott International wants to build a hotel on top of the Reunion Arena parking garage.

Neither is likely to be built without financial support from the city of Dallas.

The Hilton project team also includes landowner Chavez Properties, developer FaulknerUSA, architects RTKL Associates Inc. and Arquitectonica, financier UBS Financial Services and Dallas law firm Vinson & Elkins.

"We want to announce our team and are seeking support of the downtown community on this," said Michael Anderson, a partner with Chavez Properties. "We're going to be meeting with the mayor and City Council members to get a feeling if they are really going to do this project."

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller has lobbied extensively for a convention center hotel, arguing that it's needed to keep Dallas competitive in the convention and meeting business.

Ms. Miller and her husband, Rep. Steve Wolens, D-Dallas, were architects of a plan presented in the last regular session of the Texas Legislature to help finance a downtown hotel.

The Legislature approved the measure, which allows the city to use occupancy taxes generated by the hotel to finance its construction. The City Council has taken no formal action on the measure.

"The hotel will not be built without" financial support from the city, Mr. Anderson said.

"I know from going out around the country and talking to people that a [convention center] hotel would be successful, and it would help bring business to the other downtown hotels, too," Ms. Miller said.

She said the Chavez site has been on her radar as a potential site. After Marriott came forward with a plan, Ms. Miller called the Chavez group to see whether there was any interest.

"I said 'Marriott is up and going with a plan,' " she said. " 'You'd better get going.' " Ms. Miller said both sites have strong selling points. The one under consideration by Hilton would better tie the convention center to restaurants and shops in the West End, while the Marriott site would allow the city to connect Reunion Arena to the convention center.

Some downtown-area hotels haven't opposed the idea of a convention center hotel but question the timing.

"We still have some hotels with 40 percent occupancy levels," said Sandi Bailey, executive director for the Hotel Association of Greater Dallas. "We need to focus on making downtown a better place for conventions. Just adding a convention center hotel is not going to do it."

Some downtown-area hotel owners hope the convention hotel won't be built at all.

Average hotel occupancies in downtown Dallas are running below 50 percent.

"It doesn't make any economic sense," said Tony Dona, chief executive officer of Crow Holdings, which owns the Wyndham Anatole Hotel. "Competition is fine, and if someone wants to build a hotel with their own capital, that's fine.

"There is no reason for the government to subsidize a hotel in this environment," he said.

The development team for the proposed Hilton hotel includes two top architectural firms and an experienced hotel developer.

Baltimore-based RTKL Associates, which has an office in Dallas, and Arquitectonica of Miami have won awards for commercial and residential projects all over the world.

Developer and contractor FaulknerUSA, based in Austin, is building the 800-room convention center hotel in Austin that will be operated by Hilton and is project manager for a Hyatt being built next to the Denver convention center.

Dozens of cities across the country have built city-funded convention center hotels in the last few years, and still more are under construction.

"It's almost a moot point to ask whether it's right to keep up with the Joneses," Mr. Anderson said. "If you don't, you won't be competing.

"Without a convention center hotel, we are going to continue to have a billion-dollar asset [the convention center] dwindle," he said. "We are losing conventions right and left because we don't have it."

Marriott said in June that it wants to build a hotel on top of the Reunion Arena parking garage on Memorial Drive, southwest of the convention center. The city owns the garage, which is between the Houston Street and the Jefferson Boulevard viaducts.

Chavez Properties purchased the proposed Hilton site in the early 1990s. The property is used for parking and has a garage as well as surface lots.

Both development groups are expected to brief the City Council next month. The council would issue a request for proposals and consider official plans at the beginning of 2004, Ms. Miller said.

By Steve Brown and Suzanne Marta

-----To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.

(c) 2003, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HLT, MAR, UBS, WBR,

 
advertisement 
To search Hotel Online data base of News and Trends Go to Hotel.OnlineSearch
Home | Welcome| Hospitality News | Classifieds| Catalogs& Pricing |
Viewpoint Forum | Ideas&Trends | Press Releases
Please contact Hotel.Onlinewith your comments and suggestions.