March 18– Mar. 18–The Hilton University of Houston, a teaching hotel for students at UH's Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, is set to get a $30.4 million revamp, according to a press release on Monday.
Preliminary plans include renovating the hotel's existing 80 guest rooms, plus adding 71 guest rooms via a new five-story tower.
This will increases the total number of rooms to 151, providing the hotel with the capacity to accommodate overnight stays for large parties, including weddings and conferences.
Further, an adjacent courtyard will be renovated, six suites on the second floor will be removed to create executive meeting spaces, and the hotel's lobby and public spaces will get an overhaul.
"This expansion is our future. The constraint of having only 86 rooms has made us an anomaly in the marketplace, but we are, in fact, a full-service Hilton franchise," dean of Hilton College Dennis Reynolds said in the release.
"Our new 151-room hotel will provide for a more realistic learning experience for our students because we will be operating in a manner more typical of a full-service non-teaching hotel."
The project's approval coincides with the 50th anniversary of the college and the 100th anniversary of Hilton.
It's financed through a revenue bond issued by the University of Houston System, which will be repaid with additional revenue generated by the hotel, according to the release.
Construction will reportedly begin within 18 months, after the architect and contractor are selected by a committee, lead by Reynolds. It's expected to be completed in late 2022 through early 2023.
Marcy de Luna is a digital reporter specializing in social media, the famous, and food. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcydeLuna and Facebook @MarcydeLuna. Read her stories on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. — [email protected] — Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message
