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Marriott Marquis: GRB Convention Center Hotel At 1777 Walker St.


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an. 21, 2008, 11:44PM

Houston sees room for another big hotel

Plan could put downtown on the conventions map

By NANCY SARNOFF

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

The city is considering plans to bring a second convention center hotel to downtown, in an effort to take Houston one step closer to becoming a top convention destination.

Officials involved said Houston gets scratched off the lists of a lot of convention planners because it has a limited number of downtown hotel rooms.

And the link..

 

Webcams:

 

http://oxblue.com/open/HoustonFirst/GeorgeRBrownConventionCenter

 

http://www.welbro.com/project/marriott-marquis-hotel/

 

Renderings:

 

14084_10151821567607741_1928451683_n.jpg

 

534911_10151821567752741_602585233_n.jpg

 

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/27/36/71/6155860/5/1024x1024.jpg

 

http://www.welbro.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Houston-Marriott-Ground-View-Sports-Bar_1.jpg

 

Model:

 

http://strategicadvisorygroup.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/MarriottMarquis-Model.jpg

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Want chain will they be looking at? Will another W be possible? Can Houston support two W's? Atlanta has four W's, so I think Houston could possible support two.

W doesn't do convention hotels. That's not to say that another W couldn't be done downtown at some point in the future, but that's not the topic of this article.

This is also unrelated to an actual proposal for an Embassy Suites or La Quinta. These are presently just concepts. They haven't firmed up yet at all.

Edited by TheNiche
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hopefully, this will encourage the private sector.

is it common for cities to get large hotels off the ground? at what point is it feasible for the private sector to build a 1,000 room hotel? is houston at or near that hypothetical point? historically, how have big convention hotels gotten off the ground in other convention cities?

anyone?

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White said other sites in the area would be considered, including city-owned property.

- How much land does the city own downtown?

But for a new hotel, the ideal scenario would be for a private developer to build it.

- If this is fact, why hasn't it happened already? You'd think the market would noticed it already.

By them saying Houston gets passed over immediately by some convention planners, they make it sound like it's almost a slam dunk to get a 1,000 room hotel.

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But for a new hotel, the ideal scenario would be for a private developer to build it.

- If this is fact, why hasn't it happened already? You'd think the market would noticed it already.

By them saying Houston gets passed over immediately by some convention planners, they make it sound like it's almost a slam dunk to get a 1,000 room hotel.

The answers are in the article.

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The answers are in the article.

I can think of a few quotes you may be talking about, but am not really seeing it.

The Embassy is only slightly fulfilling this need as they say, "Hotel consultant John Keeling said five new 200-room hotels wouldn't have the same impact as one 1,000-room property."

or is this what you meant?..."The mayor said there are "significant pools" of private capital available that did not exist when the Hilton Americas was financed."

Either it's not as explicitly stated as you suggest or I'm just stupid. I'm fine w/ being stupid, I just would like an answer if someone would be so kind to give one.

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Weren't we fairly recently told that a convention hotel at the Astrodome wouldn't work, because it would hurt the Hilton Americas. But now a convention hotel downtown would be good?

Could this just be the City of Houston and Harris County a fussin' and a fuedin'?

Is it because they are two distant locations, while this new one would compliment the GRB across the street? I'm thinking that because they said conventions like to have most if not all their people in one hotel.

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Want chain will they be looking at? Will another W be possible? Can Houston support two W's? Atlanta has four W's, so I think Houston could possible support two.

As someone said prior to my post, Marriott seems like a good possibility. A full-fledged Marriott downtown would be nice. Perhaps a Marriott Marquis. Other names that might be possibilities include either Westin or Sheraton (Starwood NEEDS a presence downtown), maybe a Grand Hyatt... I can't really think of many others who would typically build or operate large convention hotels.

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Well, with the development that is going on, I just hope things are proceeding in a proper way. If certain projects get completed before TOO soon before others, than I would imagine that it might actually be a bit of a hindrance to other activity.

I'm not an economist or a city planner, but I watch the city rather closely as it is vital to my business. Things can go south rather quickly.

HP will be online in Oct. That should greatly help sell out the Marriott Courtyard and help Macy's, Tipping point, The Hyatt, Metro Rail, and two garages. While most of the visitors that will go here will be out of town visitors and business people that work downtown, a good portion of locals will swamp the place towards the end of the week (I hope).

This will add, say 50-75 (just throwing out a number) additional people to stay a day at the hotel and take up a few additional parking spaces. This will limit room availability, not by very much mind you, but enough until Omni, La Quinta(!), and Embassy Suites go online.

Now with those 3 hotels, we'll have what, 600 rooms together? Now take into consideration that Mainspace will be completed in 2010, there is no doubt that this will have a good portion of its space taken up, along with whatever space it vacated will also fill up a bit, and this will again, take up about 50-100 hotel rooms per day at the very least. According to the schedule construction schedule that is out there, the only hotel that will online by that time will be the Omni and La Quinta and they should absorb THAT need.

Now take into consideration that this doesn't include the other towers that will be going up will increase demand for hotel rooms along with (hopefully) the popularity of HP.

I have noticed over the past few years an increasing number of people that are coming in from out of town that are "leisure" travelers and they have been typically coming to town for just a the Museums and concerts. The ones that generally come for the Games have been growing a bit, but a substantial increase, believe it or not, have been people coming to see the Dynamo with people as far as New Mexico, OK, and Arkansas.

When I look at the room availability downtown with the input I receive from visitors and how many business travelers I deal with almost every day, PLUS what I hear from the Convention Bureau, this hotel would be a great boon for downtown.

As far as there being too many hotels out in the galleria area that some would say could supplement the need for downtowns shortage, a number of out of town visitors almost consider it another town! I don't have the occupancy numbers for the Galleria's 18 hotels, I've been told by others that it is almost constantly sold out.

To end my lack of caffeine and sleep deprived rambles, in short:

Yes Virginia, we need that hotel.

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The Marriott has two hotels downtown. The Courtyard and The Residence Inn, both of which seem to do very well during the week.

Currently the only buildings right on the park are: The Convention Center, The Hilton, 5 Houston (my building) and Park Place (new Fingers res. building).

As of right now there are three lots around the new park that have no buildings on them. Two of these lots will be starting construction within the next year or so. One will be an office building the other is the new Embassy Hotel. So that leaves one lot (one huge lot actually).

Edited by Daniepwils
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My guess is that it would either be a Marriott or a Starwood (likely Westin or Sheraton). Downtown desperately needs a Starwood property - they are BY FAR where business folks prefer to stay. Their points program is head and shoulders above the rest.

I think a Westin would be really nice.

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From a business side this is a great move. I read the article then read the chron.com comments. The posters on the papers board are crazy. The message boards after every article, from the Dynamo to a new park to a crime in FT. Bend County, there are dozens of the most pessimistic individuals that make up stats and treat them as facts I have seen on any message board. The people have not a single thing positive to say about Houston no matter what the situation is. I saw red had a post correcting one of the individuals who responded to this article.

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I am hoping for a Westin Hotel. 1100 rooms with 80 condos on top. If they think they can market condos in the new Westin being built straddling I-10 in the middle of a busy hospital complex, then I'd certainly think a downtown property with park views could sell too.

The only thing I didn't like about the article was the line about it possibly looking like a mirror image of the Hilton. I'd prefer something different...

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The only thing I didn't like about the article was the line about it possibly looking like a mirror image of the Hilton. I'd prefer something different...

They were talking about the location. If built, the style will definitely differentiate itself from the existing building; I'd think that they'd have difficulty flagging it if it weren't architecturally differentiated.

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Did anyone read the article a few weeks back in the chron where they were interviewing the head honcho of the convention bureau in Houston? He was saying Houston does well at attracting the smaller sized conventions, because there are enough hotel rooms in downtown for those, and Houston is also fine when it comes to the larger sized conventions, because those conventions bus the attendees in anyways, so it doesn't matter if they are at hotels all over Houston, they are going to be bussed in regardless. Houston has trouble getting those medium sized conventions, which I guess there are more of those than the small and larged sized ones. Houston has trouble getting those medium sized ones because there aren't enough hotel rooms downtown, and unlike the larger ones, they don't bus people in from hotels. So with a new convention center hotel, we can get all sized conventions, or at least they won't be able to use "not enough hotel rooms" as an excuse.

We also need to find out what Hines plans to build at the Shamrock site, rumors seem to be either office building or another hotel.

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