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.
