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Westin Hotel: Downtown At 1520 Texas Ave.


intencity77

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When I lived in Boston and would travel here, I made a point of it to stay at all of the various new downtown hotels (Icon, Alden/Sam Houston, Magnolia, Ballpark, Hilton). All of them had something very positive about them but the Ballpark might have been my favorite.

My rooms there had wood floors and ceiling fans. I've slept with a ceiling fan since I was 13 years old so I fell in love with that and slept better than I ever had in a hotel room. Additionally, the bathrooms always had a really nice stand alone shower stall as well.

I always wondered how the hotel was doing since it's a bit off the beaten path for the downtown market, so I am impressed that a brand like Westin would be interested.

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When I lived in Boston and would travel here, I made a point of it to stay at all of the various new downtown hotels (Icon, Alden/Sam Houston, Magnolia, Ballpark, Hilton). All of them had something very positive about them but the Ballpark might have been my favorite.

My rooms there had wood floors and ceiling fans. I've slept with a ceiling fan since I was 13 years old so I fell in love with that and slept better than I ever had in a hotel room. Additionally, the bathrooms always had a really nice stand alone shower stall as well.

I always wondered how the hotel was doing since it's a bit off the beaten path for the downtown market, so I am impressed that a brand like Westin would be interested.

I have always liked the Inn at the Ballpark too. They are currently running at RevPAR of about $91. Not bad. They just had the best first quarter since 2005. The downtown hotel market seems quite strong these days. No doubt the Westin flag will help them a lot.

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Is this acquisition solely based on performance or does it also have to do with the future convention hotel, light rail and future confidence in that side of town (possibly future development)?

We don't even know if there has been an acquisition. It may just as easily be a management or franchise deal. IF it is an acquisition by Starwood (doubtful), there is no way to know for sure what spurred it. But there is really little doubt that both its performance and perceived future would be factors.

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  • 2 years later...

One thing for sure was they dismantled the original Inn at the Ballpark website, which had a nice history of the building which I saved on my hard drive.

 


 

About Our Downtown Houston Luxury Hotel

 

The location of the Inn at the Ballpark in downtown, Houston, TX, is rich with history. Situated on Texas Avenue at Crawford Street in the heart of downtown, the site originally housed the residence and garden of Erastus S. Perkins from 1860 to 1926.

 

During that period, there were several important events that occurred within the vicinity. In 1890, Former President Ulysses S. Grant made a special visit to Houston aboard the first train to arrive at the new Union Station on Crawford Avenue.

 

 

Then in 1891, the organization Daughters of the Republic of Texas (originally Daughters of the Lone Star Republic) was founded at the home of Mrs. Andrew Briscoe, whose residence occupied the site at the hotel’s southeast corner.

 

Hotel Victor was built above the retail shops at 1502-1516 Texas Avenue in 1929, with storefronts including a drugstore, cobbler and kitchen for the hotel. There was a boarding house next door at 1518 Texas Avenue, and a city park offering green space for residents of the surrounding area occupied the corner of Texas and Crawford.

 

The World Trade Center Building opened at the site on January 29, 1962. Built for a cost of $3 million, it was a 12-story building with an open courtyard, 93,000 square feet of office space and a 120-seat auditorium. It was the first building to be called the World Trade Center, with the largest initial tenant being the World Trade Association.

 

Landry’s renovated the 12-story building and turned it into a nostalgic baseball-themed hotel, which opened in 2004 and has since become the premier luxury hotel destination in downtown Houston.

 

(In case it isn't obvious, I'm trying to de-clutter my Mac)

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