Jun. 13, 2003 - The top five floors of the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston are being converted to upscale condominiums. 

The 30-story hotel is one of the city's most expensive hotels, and typical rooms go for more than $200 a night. 

The hotel will carve out 35 units from its loftiest space, which overlooks the downtown skyline, the new arena and parts of downtown that are being revitalized. 

Condominiums in the tower will be priced from $345,000 to $1.3 million. 

Buyers can obtain the full line of hotel services -- room service dining, 24-hour valet parking and maid service with fresh linens daily, if wanted. 

"This is a level of service that a condo cannot provide," said Austin developer Art Carpenter, who is overseeing the condo conversion project. 

The condominiums will be called Four Seasons Private Residences. 

The project is being developed by HEF Houston Limited Partnership, the owner of the hotel at Lamar and Caroline. 

Carpenter said has been working on several similar deals around the country, converting luxury hotels into condos. The conversions provide profits for the hotel owner and can reduce the owner's debt on the hotels. 

The 400-room Four Seasons Hotel, built in 1982, was bought by HEF about three years ago for $105 million from Crescent Real Estate Equities. 

The top 10 floors of the hotel building had been used as 114 apartment units that were called Four Seasons Place. When the condo conversion is completed next year, 57 of Four Seasons Place apartment units will remain as rental dwellings. 

When the hotel was built, the top of the building was originally intended to be condos. But the market for condos soured in the early 1980s and the space was turned into apartments, said Edith Personette of Personette & Associates, which is marketing the condo project. 

Condominium conversions may appear to be an attractive option.to the owner of a hotel in downtown Houston today. The sickly national economy has reduced business travel as corporations hold the line on expenses and that hurts hoteliers. 

Year-to-date, through April, Houston's downtown hotel occupancy stood at 55.7 percent, down from 67.4 percent in the comparable period of last year, according to PKF Consulting. 

The average nightly rate downtown in the four-month period dropped to $156.71, down from $170.66 per night in the comparable period of 2002, PKF said. 

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