New 800-Room Hotel Needed To Serve Convention Center Expansion: Houston First
A new 800-room hotel would support the impending expansion of Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, according to a study commissioned by the $2B project’s leaders.
The project phase, which will add a 700K SF building and a 100K SF pedestrian plaza, should drive a 30% increase in annual events at the facility and generate $20B-plus in additional spending over the next 30 years, according to Houston First Corp.
The tourism marketing arm of the city government on Wednesday released the results of the analysis by advisory firm Hunden Partners.
The convention center’s expansion could increase the number of “citywide equivalent” meetings and conventions 62%. Hunden Partners estimated this will result in more than 337,000 additional group hotel room nights booked annually in the central business district, pushing up occupancy rates nearly 5%.
A key recommendation is that a new 800-room hotel be built near the convention center to meet this new demand.
“Such a hotel should be a full-service upper upscale property with sufficient meeting space and amenities needed to complement the convention center and the broader campus,” the press release says.
Existing hotels are expected to see $5.6B in additional room revenue, Houston First reports.
“This initiative ensures our place as a top-tier convention city,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in the release.
Houston ranked fifth out of U.S. cities on Northstar's 2024 Convention Cities Index.
The economic boosts are expected to come from just Phase 1 of the project, which is funded by a 2023 bill authored by Whitmire while he was a senator. The measure gives Houston First access to the state’s portion of incremental hotel occupancy tax revenue growth within a 3-mile radius of the GRB for 30 years, estimated to total nearly $2B.
The first phase of the project includes building GRB Houston South, a 700K SF building that would add two exhibition halls totaling 150K SF, as well as a 60K SF to 80K SF ballroom, to the convention center’s offerings. The phase is expected to be completed in time for the 2028 Republican National Convention in Houston.
The project hit an early road bump with neighbors in the East End, who argued that the city’s plan to partially close Polk Street by the end of this year will block a main artery for traffic between the East End and Downtown Houston.
Polk Street was eventually going to be cut off from crossing the freeway by the Texas Department of Transportation’s North Houston Highway Improvement Project, but Houston First sped up the timeline to coincide with the George R. Brown expansion.
The project’s first phase will also extend Avenida Plaza to connect Discovery Green to the new Central Plaza, anchoring multiple blocks of pedestrian-focused streetscape to support large-scale events. Hines is the development manager for the project.
