Fort Worth: Omni Fort Worth Hotel (Conv. Ctr.) (447 FT. / 33 ST.)

[tamtagon]

^ No doubt! Imagine the potential convention/tourism marketing advantage of DFW if downtowns Fort Worth and Dallas were a 10 minute train ride from DFW airport, and a 15 minute train ride from each other.

You dont need a car to enjoy DTFW, and you almost dont need a car to enjoy DTD. It sure makes having a good time a lot easier when you dont have to worry about transportation in an unfamiliar place. The different styles of two "connected" cities would be a very compelling novelty.

Does anyone know where the 600 rooms planned for this Omni hotel ranks in DTFW hotel size?

[sterling]

Has anyone posted any renderings of the Trinity River Master Plan in Ft Worth yet? Amazing. This "junior sister" city is moving along at quite a clip while Dallas still "spinning it's mag wheels". Unbelieveable and delightful! Ft Worth new slogan should be "Eat My Dust!".

[tamtagon]

This thread discusses Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision.

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/showthread.php?t=2493&page=1&pp=50

[sterling]

Thanks tamtagon.

[Tnekster]

Has anyone posted any renderings of the Trinity River Master Plan in Ft Worth yet? Amazing. This "junior sister" city is moving along at quite a clip while Dallas still "spinning it's mag wheels". Unbelieveable and delightful! Ft Worth new slogan should be "Eat My Dust!".

Construction on the Dallas river plan has been under way for months. Fort Worth is experiencing the same thing that Dallas experienced when the river was planned on this side. The planners say one thing and the cost estimates come in somewhere else.

[rantanamo]

Has anyone posted any renderings of the Trinity River Master Plan in Ft Worth yet? Amazing. This "junior sister" city is moving along at quite a clip while Dallas still "spinning it's mag wheels". Unbelieveable and delightful! Ft Worth new slogan should be "Eat My Dust!".

must we compare?

[Tnekster]

must we compare?

And the answer is no. Whatever both of these cities can do for the river is good news for all of us. If two Trinity river visions eventually become a reality then all I can say is bring it on.

[rantanamo]

I'd like to also know exactly why Dallas is eating their dust when the subject is something that Dallas probably shouldn't build or is only months from announcing?

[I45Tex]

http://www.planningreport.com/article/1060
An interview with a couple of things on L.A.'s convention center hotel plans

[sterling]

I'd like to also know exactly why Dallas is eating their dust when the subject is something that Dallas probably shouldn't build or is only months from announcing?

Usually because the wind blows from west to east. And Dallas will likely still be arguing with itself through "study" after "study", while Fort Worth barrels ahead with it's own very worthy plans. This Dallas Trinity thing has gone on for seeming decades. I think Fort Worth just woke up one day and said "Can't those people agree on anything? Hey, why don't we do one of our own (in this lifetime)?" And as it stands, Dallas is already behind the curve on a Convention Center Hotel. If not now, when?

Your post says it all. "... Dallas probably shouldn't build or is only only months from announcing." Hot and cold, hot and cold. After awhile it all reads pretty "tepid" regardless of how artfully the copy is written. I get really frustrated seeing proposal after proposal "bite the dust" because two people can't decide where an "on ramp" should go, or how many arches a bridge should have. When I see bulldozers and dirt flying along ANY stretch of this "larger than Central Park" area, I will gladly eat dirt from it.

[rantanamo]

fine you win. Dallas should give up. I would expect a more knowledgeable post from you though. You read this board. You know the floodway extension project has been started. I doubt you want to eat peet moss. You know that start date have been announced for the first hike and bike trails. You know the first bridge starts construction this year. You know the other bridges have funding now. You know that the FW project is a very small area compared to the huge, complex swath that the Dallas plan has to work through.
By the way, I'd like pictures of you eating that dirt.

Most of all you know you are comparing FWs hotel situation to Dallas', which are nothing alike. Two different situations. Look at the huge amount of existing hotel space in Dallas. If you want to compare situations, then look at Houston and what is happening with their convention center hotel. Should this decision be so rushed? No it shouldn't, and I was absolutely wrong in wanting this to hurry. Its not as cut and dry as the FW situation.

I'm sorry, but you read this board. You know what is going on in each respective city. You understand the two different set of circumstances. You know better.

[sterling]

I am of course not saying Dallas should give up. Only that it's "Let's wait and see" attitude has cost it plenty. Instead of being the catalyst for change, it (power players) waits for inevitable change, then seeks somehow to address it in the least effective manner possible. It always becomes bogged down in the "If we build more rooms, existing hotels will be hurt.", or "We can't put a toll booth THERE." Or, "I won't approve it unless it's a parkway with crape myrtles running down the middle of it". It CLASSICALLY ends up stalled over semantics, or exactly what the bridge will "look like reflected in the river", or whether "weeping willows or rosebushes" truly express the "correct" vision of Dallas.

As someone who has winced riding Amtrak into and through Dallas, I can tell you that ANYTHING proposed over the past 20 years would beat the panoply of junkyards, warehouses and deserted wastelands that currently line the river on either side of downtown. Those views "by default", are the way Dallas presents itself. And the "powers that be", seem to exalt in keeping "any vision other than their own" from becoming reality. "By golly, if we can't have twenty lanes of traffic by the river, I'll see to it we don't have ANY." Very impressive.

Dallas should by no means give up. And though a "hit-list" is tempting, I would settle for a general "wake-up call" aimed at Dallas power brokers and visionaries. If they can't rule for the future benefit of their constituents, they should vacate their thrones. The sooner the better.

[rantanamo]

Again, you speak as if nothing is going to happen. In case you missed it, the floodway extension project has already begun. Its not going to happen overnight. It will go phase by phase. Its a HUGE project.

As for the hotel, if you do a little research, you'll find that Dallas has missed nothing by not having the hotel. There seems to be no correlation between convention business and the hotel. Sometimes, a lot of argument actually works in favor of the recipient. Look at Victory for example. We should all personally thank the Mayor for running off the original developers that Hillwood hired. Victory is much much better.

Sometimes the speak of FW at the expense of Dallas is a little out of hand. FW is a great place, but come on. I remember when The Tower was announced. All of a sudden, high rise living was 'in' in the metroplex. Condo living was something new. No mention of the constant stream of residential highrises going up in Uptown and conversions downtown. Did the new tower next to Gulf States get a week full of news blurbs? They, like any other city has problems too. Does the Dallas City Council argue and bicker too much? Yes. Do they frustrate the masses often? Yes. Should all the incredible projects going on in Dallas simply be forgotten just because someone else got a convention center hotel? No.

And we all hate the view going into Dallas from the south and west. Fortunately that will drastically change over the next five years. Have a little patience and check out the Whitewater Park design on the trinity river corridor website. I'm very surprised no one has posted that here.

[Tnekster]

And Dallas will likely still be arguing with itself through "study" after "study", while Fort Worth barrels ahead with it's own very worthy plans.

Again, the Dallas plan is under construction. Land use along the river has been addressed. The bridges are funded. Is the Fort Worth plan under construction? Or is it currently under "study"?

[Geaux Tigers]

Again, the Dallas plan is under construction. Land use along the river has been addressed. The bridges are funded. Is the Fort Worth plan under construction? Or is it currently under "study"?

If you're talking about the Omni hotel (which is the subject of this thread), construction is scheduled to start later this year.

[Tnekster]

So I guess the hotel is not under construction either.

[John T Roberts]

The schedule for the Fort Worth Convention Center Hotel is for City Council to vote on the hotel project on March 29th. If approved, construction will start by the end of the year.

The Trinity River Vision is under federal review at this time. When that is done, property acquisition will begin. After the property is acquired, construction will begin. The timetable for this is approximately 2 years until construction.

[rantanamo]

you hope

[Tnekster]

you hope

LOL! Wait until the envioronmentalists get on the train. They held the Dallas plan up for years and didn't yield until they got what they could accept.

[John T Roberts]

I'm just repeating the schedule. I'm also a realist. It probably won't happen within 10 years.

[texman]

They held the Dallas plan up for years and didn't yield until they got what they could accept.
Well, did you just want it to be a freeway?

[Tnekster]

Not at all, I like the current plan and think it offers much more to the citizens of the region than what was first conceptualized. After all is said and done I think it will be worth the wait.

[noelamador]

Fort Worth, Omni Bless $90M Convention Center Hotel Plan
By Connie Gore
http://globest.com/news/252_252/dallas/132665-1.html
Last updated: March 29, 2005 08:51am

FORT WORTH-Omni Hotel Management Corp. and the City of Fort Worth have tied the knot on a $90-million convention center hotel development. Ground will break in early 2006 on a 600-room plan, which is now under the magnifying glass to be topped off with up to 100 condos.

Council yesterday unanimously approved a proposal that absolves the city of any financial risk in the hotel's performance. The city's incentive package is valued at $29.8 million while state-funded perks are estimated to add another $16.9 million, says Scott Johnson, vice president of development and acquisitions for Omni, headquartered in nearby Irving. "There will be no risk to Fort Worth taxpayers or the general obligation fund," he stresses.

Johnson tells GlobeSt.com that immediately after yesterday's council vote that an RFP went out to architects. The plan for 600 rooms and 48,000 sf of meeting space are fairly set in stone, but a design option will include adding floors for 60 to 100 condos. "We're pretty confident it's something we want to pursue," Johnson says, "but we have to do the research to see if the market calls for it."

Johnson says it will be first quarter 2006 before construction can begin on a Texas-theme hotel with two restaurants, a swimming pool and exercise facility right beside the convention center along Houston Street. The hotel is eyed as a revenue-generating plum to lure larger conventions to its midst. If all goes as planned, doors will swing open in early 2008.

City officials and Omni have spent nine months negotiating the deal for the privately financed hotel project. Omni originally went up against 11 other hoteliers vying for the city project with a broad spectrum of proposals.

A completion guarantee has yet to be inked, but definitely is part of the plan, according to a city-generated press release. All hotel and sales tax incentives will be performance-based. Under the 10-year incentive package, Omni will get 1% of local sales tax and local hotel taxes; state sales and hotel taxes; and a property tax abatement for the hotel and garage. City officials plan to offset parking garage costs with $6.3 million from the non-general fund. In a separate pact, Omni secured an option to sublease retail space on the garage's ground level to retail or commercial tenants.

The hotel developer and city signed a 99-year ground lease for $10,000. Omni has the option to purchase the land at the end of 2015 at a net cost of $1 million. The agreement ensures that Omni will become the convention center's exclusive caterer and concessionaire six months after the hotel opens. It also guarantees a block of rooms for convention center use.

Omni is required to hire at least 125 Fort Worth residents for the 250 full-time hotel jobs. Its other local mandate generates revenue for Fort Worth companies and minority/women-owned businesses. Omni, holding the right to pay the least amount, must spend at least $12 million or 20% of the construction costs with Fort Worth companies and $6 million with the minority/women-owned operations. After doors open, Omni has agreed to spend at least $100,000 annually with local businesses and at least $50,000 per year on the minority/women-owned enterprise companies.

[Tnekster]

I like the idea of adding condos. If they did that in Dallas it might be a more attractive investment.

[texman]

If they did that in Dallas it might be a more attractive investment.
Sounds good to me too. If only we could get our conv. hotel plans off the ground.

[Geaux Tigers]

Posted on Thu, Jan. 12, 2006



City asked to pay more for hotel

By ANNA M. TINSLEY and MIKE LEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS

FORT WORTH -- The developer of the downtown convention center hotel is asking the city to kick in more money, saying that rising construction costs have pushed the $90 million price tag up by as much as 30 percent, several officials close to the deal said Wednesday.

Officials would not release details of the request but said any additional city funding would come from taxes generated by the proposed 600-room hotel and underground parking garage scheduled to be built west of the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Councilwoman Wendy Davis, who heads the city's economic development committee, said she's afraid the deal might fall apart if city leaders don't agree to help.

"They're not asking the city to bear the burden," she said Wednesday. "They're asking us to partner on that. We've really looked at it, scrubbed the numbers, reviewed internal documentation on cost, and we think [rising costs are] a very real problem.

"If we aren't willing to be a good partner and come back to the table, we won't get this convention center hotel."

Scott Johnson, Omni Hotels vice president for acquisitions and development, said the company needs the city's help to cover the cost increases.

"The cost of construction for this hotel project and all development projects across the country have skyrocketed," Johnson said. "Despite that, and with minimal amount of increased assistance from the city, Omni Hotels is committed to this dynamic, privately funded hotel project on which the city and its taxpayers bear no risk."

Last year, officials with the Irving-based Omni company agreed to spend at least $59.3 million to build the hotel, which would include two restaurants, a lobby bar, a pool and an exercise facility. The deal called for the company to receive $29.8 million from the city in tax rebates and other funding, mainly through hotel and sales taxes collected at the hotel over 10 years.

The deal also called for an additional $18.7 million in tax incentives from the county and state.

But now, rising costs for steel, concrete and other building materials have boosted the cost of the project. In addition, Omni officials have indicated that they expect to add about 90 condominiums to the hotel.

Several council members said they would consider increasing the city's contribution.

"They've come back with some increased building costs because of the general rise in building costs," Councilman Carter Burdette said. "I have no problem with helping more.

"No. 1, it's going to be a first-class hotel with a first-class ownership," he said. "And No. 2, we badly need the hotel rooms for the city. Our prospects of getting a hotel built in the near future down there are going to be very difficult if we don't do this with Omni."

Councilman Jungus Jordan said the increased cost to the city would be offset by benefits to the city-owned convention center. Despite a $75 million renovation of the convention center, officials say Fort Worth is losing convention business to other cities.

"If we don't have it, we might as well write off the convention center, but the numbers have to work," Jordan said. "I think we've got it there."

City officials said last year that they feared rising steel and concrete costs as a result of hurricanes could increase the costs of various city construction projects.

"Typically, when you build something of this magnitude, costs do go up," Burdette said. "It's vital for us to go ahead ... if we delay this and go back to the drawing board, I think we will see a further increase in cost."

Local minority leaders want the revised contract to require 25 percent participation for minority- and women-owned businesses. Omni has committed to spending 20 percent of construction costs up to $11.8 million with Fort Worth companies, including 10 percent with local minority- and women-owned businesses, up to $5.9 million.

Several community leaders -- including former state Rep. Glenn Lewis, who now works for the NAACP, and Ron Muhammad of Tarrant County POWER -- attended the council meeting Tuesday to push for increased participation by minorities in the hotel project.

"We do not support anyone who sells out for 10 percent or 15 percent," Muhammad said.

Councilman Donavan Wheatfall, whose district is predominantly African-American, said other cities have even more stringent policies than Fort Worth.

"We're going to hold the line at [pushing for] 25 percent," Wheatfall said.

Johnson said Omni has increased its minimum commitment for minority- and women-owned businesses to $15 million. He said that is the largest commitment for minority- and women-owned businesses in the city's history, when combined with construction of the parking garage.

"We're excited about working with the MWBE community," he said.

Plans for a convention center hotel have been in the works for years. A deal in 2002 to build the hotel with taxpayer money was derailed after a petition drive would have forced the issue to voters.

The latest deal, approved in March, would provide city help through rebates of some taxes generated by the new hotel but would not tap into the city's general fund. The deal calls for a 15- to 21-story hotel with 48,000 square feet of meeting space and a 400-space parking garage that would mostly be paid for with city reserves.

In addition to the rebates, the council agreed to lease the site to Omni for $10,000 a year for 99 years and gave Omni the option to buy the land for $1 million after 10 years. With the city's approval, Omni could sell the hotel after three years of operation. The council also agreed to let Omni provide all food and beverages at the convention center for 10 years once the hotel has been open for six months.

In return, Omni agreed to create at least 250 full-time jobs in the hotel and garage and to set aside 80 percent of the hotel rooms for conventions booked at least three years in advance. Omni would also spend at least $100,000 a year with Fort Worth companies for supplies and services and at least $50,000 a year with local minority- and women-owned businesses.

Davis said officials are now considering Omni's request.

"Now that we know what the actual costs are, because work is under way, we are looking at whether we can restructure the deal," Davis said.

ONLINE: www.fortworthgov.org

[tamtagon]

By ANNA M. TINSLEY and MIKE LEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS

FORT WORTH -- The developer of the downtown convention center hotel is asking the city to kick in more money, saying that rising construction costs have pushed the $90 million price tag up by as much as 30 percent, several officials close to the deal said Wednesday.
...
Last year, Omni company agreed to spend at least $59.3 million
...the company to receive $29.8 million from the city ... an additional $18.7 million from the county and state.
...
But now, rising costs for steel, concrete and other building materials have boosted the cost of the project. In addition, Omni officials have indicated that they expect to add about 90 condominiums to the hotel.
...
In addition to the rebates, the council agreed to lease the site to Omni for $10,000 a year for 99 years and gave Omni the option to buy the land for $1 million after 10 years. With the city's approval, Omni could sell the hotel after three years of operation. The council also agreed to let Omni provide all food and beverages at the convention center for 10 years once the hotel has been open for six months.

In return, Omni agreed to create at least 250 full-time jobs in the hotel and garage and to set aside 80 percent of the hotel rooms for conventions booked at least three years in advance. Omni would also spend at least $100,000 a year with Fort Worth companies for supplies and services and at least $50,000 a year with local minority- and women-owned businesses.


Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Omni.

I'm shocked that the cost of building supplies have increased so much within a years time to make this sturcture cost 30% more. Have other projects across the country seen a similar 30% cost increase? Sounds kinda like Omni is trying to sneak in the 90 (high profit for Omni) condos into the deal - on top of the 10 years food/beverage contract with the Convention Ctr.

[Geaux Tigers]

Wait for it...here comes the Hurricane Katrina building supply/rising costs reasoning.

[John T Roberts]

I wouldn't necessarily say they are sneaking in the 90 condominium units. While the negotiations were going on with the city, they mentioned they might be adding the residential component to the project.

[rjlevins]

This convention center hotel seems already over-subsidized. I hope the city of Fort Worth does not give them another penny. They are getting already almost $40 million to build a business that they will operate, not to mention low lease cost of the land and business contracts. There are projects going on in other cities that get far less and are not associated with a convention center.

[John T Roberts]

We now have more information on the hotel. It will have 608 room and 97 condominiums. This has been a rumor for a long time, but now the city and hotel people are starting to confirm the information. It will be 38 stories tall and approximately 500 feet in height. Now, for the good stuff. A rendering has finally been released. The only copy I have is small, but it is better than nothing.
http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/Omni Fort Worth Hotel.jpg

[Hunter Wadle]

whoa! slick tower, the base seems huge!

[CTroyMathis]

Great John, thanks for posting it up.

[BigD5349]

Looks like it could be a slick addition for Cowtown. Thanks for posting.

[John T Roberts]

More renderings and information will be released on Thursday. The City Council votes to move forward with the project on Tuesday, January 24th.

Troy, you are welcome. It was no problem to post the rendering.

[msutton]

great looking building.

[DalMac]

Much like the Frost building and few others soon to come, Austin's skyline is in the midst of a transformation that will make the DT area look dramatically better. Ft Worth has the same opportunity with this structure and some others that are on the drawing board. A midisized skyline like this can be altered immensely by 2-3 building over 4-500 ft.

[John T Roberts]

DalMac, I don't know if you picked up on it, but Fort Worth also has a 900 footer that has been proposed.

[DalMac]

yeah I have, but its a bit hard to believe.. Is that really going to happen IYO?

[John T Roberts]

I first had my doubts. The developer has been known for announcing plans to building something major, and then not getting the financing to build it. This time, he is partnering with a group that has a good track record for getting projects built. We will just have to wait and see, but this deal does look more promising than some of his earlier proposals.

[DalMac]

I hope it happens!

[staplesla]

FORT WORTH - The city will kick in an extra $18 million to cover cost increases for the proposed convention center hotel, despite protests that the deal doesn't include enough guarantees for minority contractors and that it is unfair to other hotel companies that bid on the job before the cost increased.

Proponents said the extra costs were justified because the hotel is projected to bring in $1.8 billion in convention business. Also, Omni Hotels of Irving has agreed to spend $15 million of the construction costs with Fort Worth minority firms, the biggest such contract ever awarded. If Omni doesn't meet the goal, it could lose some of its tax breaks.

"No one is going to tell me that that's insignificant," Mayor Mike Moncrief said. "That's not crumbs. That's a main course."

The deal, approved 8-1 by the City Council on Tuesday after more than two hours of discussion, ended two months of negotiations between Omni and the city and came after more than three years of wrangling about whether the city should help build a hotel near the convention center.

The hotel is scheduled to open in 2008. Plans call for 608 rooms, two ballrooms, a spa, gift shop and two restaurants. It will also include as many as 97 condominiums.

The city originally wanted to build a publicly owned hotel, but a petition drive ended that idea in 2002. City officials spent months negotiating with private hotel companies before approving the original deal with Omni in March.

That contract set the cost at $90 million and called for the city to contribute $31.5 million in tax rebates and other incentives. The original contract called for $5.9 million to be spent on minority contractors.

In November, Omni told the city that the cost had increased 28 percent, to $115 million. Most of the increase was due to the climbing costs of concrete and steel; about $2.3 million came because the city asked Omni to shrink the hotel's footprint, requiring more underground construction.

Omni asked the city for an extra $18.2 million in tax breaks. City officials took the opportunity to negotiate the $15 million minority contracting goal.

But several black contractors, activists and ministers said minorities could handle more of the project, because Fort Worth is about 20 percent black and 30 percent Hispanic. The city sets a goal of spending 25 percent of its construction budget with minority- and women-owned companies, but the amount can vary.

The Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce supported the deal, saying it would more directly benefit local people because it is directed at Fort Worth companies only and because Omni is required in its contract to meet the goal.

Arlington, Dallas and other cities have minority contracting goals, too, but they only require a "good-faith effort." Many other cities allow builders to pick minority contractors from the nine-county metropolitan area.
"Some folks have assumed the chamber has sold out on this issue," said Monte Elliott, president of the black chamber.

"This chamber was one of the organizations that fought to get 25 percent on the table in the first place."
Elliott said many of the activists were late to the dance.
Reginald Jordan, a minister in east Fort Worth, said, "There's a new generation arising, which explains our lack of involvement in times past."

The split extended to the council.

Councilman Donavan Wheatfall said last week that council members who didn't support the higher minority contracting goal should "pack their bags and go home." He apologized for those remarks Tuesday, saying they were "over the top."

Wheatfall voted for the original Omni contract, with its lower minority contracting goal, but said he was less-informed then. He said last week that he had asked Omni to hire contractor Leonard Briscoe and other minorities. Briscoe has a history of cost overruns and other problems on government contracts, most recently with the Fort Worth school district.

Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks, the other African-American council member, said she supported the latest deal with Omni because the $15 million would go directly to Fort Worth companies.
"I was elected to represent 70,000 people, not two or three," she said.

Other opponents of the deal said the city should reopen the bidding process and look for a deal that doesn't involve so much public funding.

"We're hurting not only the minorities but everybody in the community because the tax burden shifts," former Councilman Clyde Picht said.

John DuPont, vice president of DiamondRock Hospitality Co., which manages the Renaissance Worthington Hotel downtown, complained recently in a letter to the City Council that the deal gave Omni an unfair advantage.

Omni Vice President Scott Johnson said his company's proposal is still the most competitive.
"If you go back and look at the bids, where we are now is where they were then," he said.

[dfwcre8tive]

Will upscale hotels work downtown?
By DAVID WETHE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH — Cowtown is about to get a little more sophisticated with its hotels.

By the end of 2008, five upscale hotel brands are expected to blow into downtown and stick to four different buildings. The attraction: the newly renovated and expanded Fort Worth Convention Center, thriving Sundance Square entertainment district and a growing reputation statewide.

But industry analysts and operators themselves say the luxury accommodations — the latest being the plan, confirmed Friday, to renovate the Radisson Plaza Hotel into a Hilton — present the downtown market with a big challenge.

Fort Worth, which has long embraced the title of Cowtown and its unpretentious culture and modest prices, must now command higher rates to help pay for the upgrades, which include suites, spas, upscale restaurants and facade makeovers. “My guess is there’s going to be a lot of hogs in the trough looking for rates in downtown Fort Worth,” said Greg Crown, a vice president at PKF Consulting in Dallas.

“One of their challenges will be Fort Worth’s reputation and its niche for offering very attractive pricing,” Crown said. “These upscale hotels are headed in the other direction. That may present some challenges for them to begin to capture higher-rated business.”

By all measures, the downtown Fort Worth market is certainly better than it was in 2001, when the nation’s travel industry tanked. The average nightly rate for a hotel room downtown has consistently risen over the past five years, to $110.18 from $95.16 in 2001, according to Smith Travel Research, which compiles hospitality data.

Even larger growth has occurred in the benchmark statistic for a hotel’s financial health — nightly revenue per available room, or revpar. It factors rates and occupancy into one number. Downtown Fort Worth revpar has grown 23 percent in the same five-year period, to $65.12 from $52.90.

It’s a similar scene throughout the state, said Doug Sutton, vice president of Source Strategies, a San Antonio-based industry consultant. “This is the first time since we started tracking data [in 1986] that every single metro area was positive” in year-over-year growth throughout Texas, Sutton said. “Everybody is up.”

Part of that is because of the increased demand from hurricane evacuees.

Fort Worth’s downtown hotel growth is partly attributable to the new convention center, which opened a year ago after almost doubling in size. The number of new projects has also been buoyed by the shrinking supply of hotel rooms downtown. That helps boost occupancy and room rates.

Smith Travel Research counts the downtown market as 1,786 rooms in eight hotels.

But Doug Harman, president and chief executive of the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he counts only about 500 of those rooms as decent enough to commit for conventions and available for meeting blocks. He’s been hunting for about 1,500 “committable” downtown rooms.

Three downtown hotels are either being renovated or planning upgrades in the near future. A fourth is being built from the ground up. When they’re all done, Fort Worth should have roughly 2,000 rooms, with 1,400 of those committable.

But as they go through the transition over the next few years, the convention bureau plans to rely on clusters of hotels several miles away from downtown on the west and north sides for conventions. “You’ve got a window of time, before all these rooms come online, that is going to be very, very challenging,” Harman said. “Our objective is to try to preserve as much of the existing business as we can.”

The Clarion Hotel closed in November after being sold to a group of investors that moved its headquarters from Lubbock to downtown Fort Worth to be near its latest project.

The hotel, at 600 Commerce St., will be split into two separate operations, the Hotel Indigo and the Clarion Collection. The Hotel Indigo, with an entrance on Fifth Street, will feature 150 rooms designed for the hip, urban, cosmopolitan crowd. Prices will hover around $130 a night.

The Clarion Collection, with a new entrance on Commerce Street, will consist of only 52 suites, with rates starting at $175. It will have a Western theme that is “very much representative of the Stockyards and the local culture,” said Pritesh Patel, president of Pearl Real Estate, which bought the building. Patel said he hopes to attract performers staying at Bass Hall, for example.

The Clarion Collection is a new, high-end brand that Clarion’s parent company, Choice Hotels, started offering in 2003. Because the Clarion name isn’t well known among upscale customers, Patel’s marketing strategy is to primarily use the Collection name more to make it sound exclusive. The two new hotel brands are expected to open in November.

The next one slated for renovations is the Fort Worth Plaza Hotel. A new collection of buyers plans to close on the building Tuesday. The investors, which include Presidio Hotel Group of California and Colleyville-based Realty Capital Partners, are seeking $21.5 million in tax breaks to renovate the hotel.

The hotel plans to price its rooms between $120 and $130 a night, said Guneet Bajwa, executive vice president of Presidio. With its 434 rooms that will be renovated in two 12-story towers, the large hotel will target mostly conventions and large groups, he said. “Downtown is going through a renaissance,” Bajwa said. “The city is in need of creating a room base, and we’ll be a major component of providing that base.”

The Radisson Plaza Hotel announced Friday that it is undergoing a $10.5 million makeover and will change its name to the Hilton Fort Worth.

The $115 million Omni Fort Worth Hotel will provide 608 new rooms to the downtown market by the end of 2008. It’s expected to break ground by late summer, said Mike Deitemeyer, president of Irving-based Omni Hotels, which is building the convention-center hotel in a public-private partnership with the city of Fort Worth. The city will pay for about $50 million of the project, mostly through hotel-tax rebates.

Source Strategies’ Sutton said that’s one of the challenges that other downtown hoteliers will struggle with. He doubts that Omni will be able to bring enough new business to town to provide some for other nearby downtown hotels. “It’s not going to turn into Las Vegas overnight,” Sutton said. “It’s Fort Worth. It just needs to maintain what it is. The fact that no developer would build that [convention center hotel] without incentives — that’s all you have to look at.”

But Bajwa, who’s overseeing the likely transition of the Fort Worth Plaza Hotel, is not concerned about the overnight transition. “We’re long-term players,” he said. “Over the long term, the market will continue to be strong.”

Large groups and conventions are not the only ones who can afford the higher-rate rooms coming to downtown. Corporate business travelers will also be a key segment for the upscale hotels.

But that’s where Fort Worth faces another big challenge, said Crown, the Dallas consultant. “What they’ve got to look for now in Fort Worth is how can they bring new office and new commercial business downtown,” Crown said.

Patel agrees. “More office space would definitely help with the more hotel rooms that are coming online,” he said. “Right now there seems to be a pretty good balance between the number of hotel rooms and the number of corporate clientele.”

With the Omni coming in, many corporate travelers could end up going there. And if there isn’t more office space added? “If there isn’t, it’s not going to be a happy picture,” Patel said. “It’s not going to be to anybody’s desires — not the city, not the rest of the hotels around here. Some things are going to have to give. We’re hoping we just differentiate ourselves with designs and different rates.”

His Clarion Collection hotel was designed to go up against the Ashton Hotel, a 5-year-old boutique hotel several blocks away that aims to get a lot of corporate travelers as well. Except, the difference between the two is that the Clarion Collection won’t really look to house conventioneers, Patel said. The Ashton does. Its rooms are also about $100 more expensive on a nightly basis. “We’ll take a lot of directors, CEOs and presidents, while their group is staying at another hotel, especially if it’s a citywide convention,” said Kristen Alderson, the Ashton’s general manager.

The recent announced hotel changes have already created actual changes in the convention business. The Republican Party of Texas, which hadn’t held its annual meeting in Fort Worth since 1998, recently announced plans to come back t0 downtown in 2012 and 2014. “With all of the new configurations of the convention center and the new hotel, the city met our requirements, and they offered us a great deal,” said Tina Benkiser, chairwoman of the state GOP group.

With better resources to market their properties, downtown hoteliers must now get down to business and prove that they can take advantage of the situation by bringing more upscale visitors to town, Crown said. “It’s one thing to talk about the need for new quantity and quality, but once you get it — it’s like the dog that’s chasing the car and finally catches it — what do you do with it?” Crown said. “It’s likely to get, as they say, rather sportin’ over there.”

David Wethe, (817) 685-3803
dwethe@star-telegram.com

[St-T]

^FW is trying to become Dallas. Uh-oh.

[Geaux Tigers]

^FW is trying to become Dallas. Uh-oh.

No, Ft. Worth is just being Ft. Worth.

[Geaux Tigers]

Posted on Sat, May. 06, 2006



Omni lineup has restaurants, shops, a spa - and, oh yeah, a hotel

By David Wethe
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The opening is more than two years away, but the $115 million Omni Fort Worth Hotel has already lined up several retail concepts aimed not only at out-of-towners, but at Cowtowners as well.

It's helping to up the ante in the high-stakes gamble of upscale hotels in downtown Fort Worth.

Officials for Irving-based Omni Hotels say they will have a Bob's Steak & Chop House, a Starbucks coffee shop, an upscale wine bar, another yet-to-be-named restaurant, a sports lounge, a spa and a gift shop that might sell items related to the Kimbell Art Museum.

And that's in addition to what's already announced, including 608 guest rooms, 97 condominiums, a multilevel parking garage and 48,000 square feet of meeting space.

The privately owned hotel company, with 40 properties in North America, has also set up its own advisory board that will weigh in on everything from the volume of music in the lobby to scents in the restrooms.

Members of the board include officials from Apple iTunes, the Kimbell, The Juilliard School, Whole Foods Market, Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and the National Cotton Council.

They plan to meet quarterly, with the first get-together set for this month at Omni's Los Angeles property, said Stephen Rosenstock, senior vice president of brand standards and business development.

The board's suggestions will be used on all of Omni's hotels, but its Fort Worth property will benefit greatly because it has yet to be built, Rosenstock said.

The hotel will break ground in August. It will be across Houston Street from the Fort Worth Convention Center, where there are now parking lots.

Many of the retail concepts being jammed into the hotel's 12-foot-tall, 7,000-square-foot lobby will open up at street level, making them more accessible for those outside the hotel.

"We want the lobby of Omni Fort Worth to just be the living room of downtown," Rosenstock said.

The 150-seat Bob's steakhouse will be operated by Omni, said Bill Lenox, owner of the Bob's in Plano.

Lenox, who owns the rights to the restaurant name, sold Omni the licensing rights for the name and menu. He declined to disclose the price but said he will receive a small share of the sales each year.

The restaurant, which will overlook the Fort Worth Water Gardens, will feature all the same meats and ingredients that the other Bob's restaurants offer, Lenox said.

"I expect it to be a prime location inside a terrific hotel," he said. "I expect it to draw from the local Fort Worth audience as well as the traveling business partner."

Bob Jameson, general manager of the competing Renaissance Worthington Hotel in Sundance Square, said he's not surprised by most of Omni's new offerings.

"I would think they're going to have to create some of their own entertainment venues," said Jameson, whose 504-room hotel sits at the opposite end of downtown. "It will be a little removed from everything that's in Sundance Square. It might be necessary for them to create a little more activity in their own building until the south end of downtown develops a little bit more."

Bharath Josiam, associate professor of hospitality management at the University of North Texas, said Omni is "absolutely on the right track" with its offerings.

"If your hotel is only a bed to stay in, then all it's going to attract is those people who are looking for a bed," he said. "But if you want to charge $200 or $300 for a room, then you have to provide more than just a box to stay in."

Josiam points to the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center on Lake Grapevine as a good example of a hotel generating strong revenue in areas other than lodging, such as its restaurants.

But Rosenstock is careful not to draw too many comparisons to the Texan. "It's going to have a Fort Worth feel, but not to the point where it's overthemed," he said.

[tamtagon]

Posted on Sat, May. 06, 2006

By David Wethe
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

But Rosenstock is careful not to draw too many comparisons to the [Gaylord] Texan. "It's going to have a Fort Worth feel, but not to the point where it's overthemed," he said.

I'm, like, all excited by this quote, the 'Fort Worth feel', but kinda worried at the same time. It's easy enough to identify the "Fort Worth feel" in a compare/contrast exercise, but I'm thinking it's going to be kinda tricky to meet that mission while avoid the 2006/7 time stamp. The origin of the hotel's Fort Worth feel, I think, is to be found while meditating at the Amon Carter Museum.

Fort Worth can be an exceptionally beautiful and classy city, as equally friendly as proud yet very refreshing in its low levels of assumed dignity or importance.

A good steak house overlooking the Water Gardens is reassuring. Both experiences typify Fort Worth and the resulting combination should be an ambiance of earthy refinement.

"We want the lobby of Omni Fort Worth to just be the living room of downtown," Rosenstock said. - that's also encouraging. To me, the concept rings true to the friendliness of Fort Worth.

This place is shaping up very nicely.

[CTroyMathis]

Here's the superdupersize rendering. Boink: http://www.fortworthgov.org/publicevents/convention/Omni_rendering.jpg

Attached edited version:

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=9967

[Tnekster]

^That is cool and FW needs a cool new tower.

[Geaux Tigers]

Cowtown needs any new towers it can get it's hands on!