NEW HOTEL TO BOLSTER GEORGE R. BROWN CONVENTION CENTER 262-room Embassy Suites expected to open in March 2011
05.07.2009 --
The George R. Brown Convention Center will have more to offer meeting planners and convention visitors in 2011 with the just-approved seven-year agreement with the developer planning to build a 262-room Embassy Suites, two blocks from the downtown convention facility.
The hotel will also be adjacent to both the 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston and Discovery Green, the city’s new 12-acre park.
On April 29, the Houston City Council approved an economic incentive package with American Liberty Hospitality, the hotel’s management company and developer. Under terms of the deal, the company will receive payments equal to the amount of the municipal hotel tax it collects, for each year of its initial seven years of operation.
In return, the hotel agreed to provide the city and the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau a room block equal to 70 percent of the hotel’s rooms for conventions, corporate meetings and trade shows. The hotel also will feature the convention center in its national advertising program.
This action is the first under an ordinance approved in October 2008 that provides incentive payments to encourage the development of hotels in the city’s central business district.
Construction is expected to start later this month on what is currently a surface parking lot and
is expected to be open for business by March 2011, when Houston hosts the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament.
Dawn Ullrich, director of the city Convention & Entertainment Facilities Department, which oversees the downtown convention center along with other municipal venues including Wortham Theater Center and Jones Hall, predicted that the convention industry will warmly welcome the Embassy Suites property.
“Any hotel built within walking distance of a convention center is going to be an immediate hit with meeting planners and attendees,” Ullrich said.
