1,000 rooms

New convention center hotel is full speed ahead: See the striking look that willpave over a parking lot

Houston First Corporation is entering into exclusive negotiations with locally-headquartered Rida Development Corporation to develop the new hotel that will be adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Rida has teamed with Morris Architects for the design of the 1,000-room hotel, which will be attached to the George R. Brown by sky bridge.

The project will take the district one step closer to a "four-corners" hotel concept envisioned in the 2025 Master Plan, which includes a hotel "planned for the corner of Polk Street and Chartres Avenue, one block southeast of the Convention Center" and another on the corner of Rusk Street and Chartres Avenue. And it comes in the same week that the George R. Brown is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The project will take the district one step closer to a "four-corners" hotel concept envisioned in the 2025 Master Plan.

The overall goal is to expand the holding capacity of the convention center district, which has been eliminated from convention-hosting consideration in the past due to inadequate downtown accommodations.

"This new convention center hotel will increase our convention business and bring new energy to the city's convention district," Ric Campo, chairman of Houston First, said in a statement. "The hotel will bring significant sales resources for the convention market and will be a welcome addition to the Houston sales teams."

The new convention center hotel will be built directly north of Discovery Green — mirroring Hilton Americas-Houston, the 1,200-room hotel connected to the convention center by two skywalks — on a 6.7-acre space that is currently a surface parking lot.

Houston First says that it will construct a 1,800-space parking garage on the north side of the George R. Brown with first-floor retail space. The process for that garage, which will serve both the general public and convention hotel visitors, is expected to begin later this year.

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No Cap

Houston ranked No. 3 destination for Gen Zers on the move for 2023

Photo by Alexander Londoño on Unsplash

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As Gen Z enters adulthood, many are flocking to the nation's biggest cultural hubs like New York City, Los Angeles, and now Houston, which had the third-highest inflow of Gen Zers in 2023.

H-Town's new reputation as a Gen Z hotspot was unveiled in a recent report by American home improvement brand This Old House, which analyzed migration trends across multiple generations using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Houston saw an influx of 22,868 Gen Z residents last year to become the generations third most popular city. That's up from ranking as the No. 11 most popular city in 2022. Houston gained fewer than 7,600 new Gen Z residents during that time in comparison to 2023's migration trend.

Houston started gaining traction as an up-and-coming destination for Gen Zers last year, when the "experience-hungry generation" was on the hunt for an affordable place to live with vast opportunities for entertainment, education, or employment.

Real estate marketplace Zillow seems to agree on a statewide scale, declaring Texas as the No. 1 destination for Gen Zers on the move in 2024.

While Houston saw big gains in its Gen Z population last year, many other big cities saw a mass exodus.

"El Paso, Texas, has lost the most residents from this generation, with a drop of 5,607, a sharp turn from 2022 when the city saw an increase," the report said. "Other cities, including Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; McKinney, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas, are seeing similar declines."

The report also surprisingly revealed that Houston is also one of the top destinations for millennials and Gen X, whereas both New York City and Los Angeles lost more residents among those two generations in comparison.

Houston ranked as the No. 1 city for Gen Xers and No. 4 for millennials based on their respective migration trends in 2023. Houston gained 6,312 new Gen X residents last year – the most nationwide – and the fourth-highest amount of millennials (5,301 new residents).

"Gen X, baby boomers, and the Silent Generation are also moving away from major cities, particularly New York City and Washington, D.C.," the report said. "They’re heading to some of the same cities as Gen Z, including Houston and Jacksonville, Florida."

The top 10 cities that gained the most Gen Z residents in 2023 are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York
No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
No. 3 – Houston, Texas
No. 4 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. 5 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 6 – San Diego, California
No. 7 – Seattle, Washington
No. 8 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Minneapolis, Minnesota