HOUSTON – Houston First Corp. is seeking a developer for 400-room hotel that would be located on top of the new parking garage and office building planned just north of the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
A request for proposals issued by Houston First Corp says the team would privately finance, own and operate the hotel, which would attach via skybridge to the north end of the convention center, 1001 Avenida de la Americas. Houston First Corp. expects to enter into a site/pad lease with the hotel owner.
The pad has been designed to accommodate about 400 rooms on 15 floors above the 1,900-space parking garage and would include a ground-floor lobby and guest drop-off area.
Up to 200 spaces in the parking garage will be set aside for hotel guests. Houston First Corp. will look to the hotel developer to propose the number of rooms, hotel type and hotel brands that the developer believes are feasible and best fit the needs of the Convention District and surrounding area. Upon receipt and review of the submittals, Houston First Corp. will enter into negotiations with the top teams that submit proposals. Construction of the hotel would start about September 2015.
Houston First recently announced that the Greater Houston Partnership will occupy two floors of a 115,000-square-foot office building that will sit in front of the parking garage. Houston First and the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau will occupy the rest of the office building, marking the first time that all of the organizations promoting Houston will work in the same structure.
Houston First Corp. operates the city’s finest arts and convention facilities to position Houston as a world-class destination. Houston First manages more than 10 city-owned buildings, plazas and parking facilities. Properties include Wortham Theater Center, Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, Miller Outdoor Theatre, George R. Brown Convention Center and Hilton Americas-Houston.