posted on January 07, 2011 00:31
Hotel developer White Lodging Corp. submitted a preliminary application on Dec. 21 to eventually build a Hyatt Place in downtown Austin near the convention center.
The Merrillville, Ind.-based hotel developer plans a 17-story, 296-room development at Third Street and San Jacinto Boulevard, next to the Austin Convention Center, according to a November report in the Austin American-Statesman.
Hyatt Places are marketed as “fresh” experience “designed for the 24/7 lifestyle of today’s multi-tasking business traveler” and are also “suited to serve small corporate/executive meetings.”
The land where the Hyatt is planned is already zoned CBD-CURE according to city records. The designation exempts the development from some building codes and permits greater heights for the sake of economic benefit.
City leaders have long called for more hotel development in downtown, but closer to the tune of 1,000 rooms.
Officials have hinted at city involvement in the past, but in reality the city barred itself nine years ago from designating any other hotel as one of the city’s “convention center hotels,” buying or developing another hotel in the Central Business District — which includes issuing tax-exempt bonds or entering into a room-block agreement.
The city entered the contract when it issued more than $250 million in bonds to build the downtown Austin Hilton about 10 years ago, according to public records filed with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, or MSRP. The city reaffirmed that pledge when it refinanced the bonds in 2006.
12/30/10, Jacob Dirr, Austin Business Journal