Development| Published on July 13, 2010 4:00 pm

Downtown Hilton Hotel Breaks Ground Today

By: Walker


The new Downtown Hilton Hotel located adjacent to the Convention Center officially broke ground this afternoon, and construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2012. The new $140 million full-service hotel will feature 532 rooms, 48 suites and over 22,000 square feet of additional meeting and convention space.

The project is being completed as a partnership between the Franklin County Commissioners, Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, City of Columbus and Nationwide Realty Investors. The Hotel will be operated by Hilton Worldwide.

“The addition of the 532-room Hilton will enable our city to compete as a convention destination for more than 900 national trade shows, conventions and meetings in our target convention market,” said Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority Board Chairman John S. Christie. “Columbus is looking beyond the short-term and preparing for the next ten years.”

The hotel will also include a new 160-seat restaurant, 100-seat lounge, and a coffee shop.

Additional hotel developments for the area have also been proposed, or are already underway, including the Pizzuti Boutique Hotel planned a few blocks north in the Short North, the new Hyatt Place hotel in Grandview Yard, which opens in September, the new six-story Springhill Suites Hotel at the former Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe site, and the boutique Hotel Indigo project near the corner of Broad & High Downtown.

44 Comments

  • yes!!!!!!!!!!  i can’t wait to watch this go up.  Hopefully they’ll have a live cam online for it.

  • are there any updated renderings or is this the final design?

  • The press release sent out a few days ago as well as today only included the same renderings that were released back in November:

    http://www.columbusunderground.com/renderings-of-convention-center-hotel-revealed/comment-page-1#comment-93389

  • bummer, i was hoping to see a few tweaks here and there.

  • I’m not a fan of a new sky bridge over high street, but more hotel space adjacent to the convention center and close to Nationwide Arena is definitely a good thing.

  • Very much looking forward to watching this project grow, and to seeing the area reap the benefits….aside from the skybridge.

  • Love the idea that it is actually under construction, but they have to ditch the skybridge.  Horrible, big urban planning mistake.

  • I agree. I think they should reconfigure with some sort of special access tunnel under the viaduct for transporting weather-sensitive gear between the Hotel & Convention Center, but 90% of hotel guests really have no reason that they can’t go outside and use the sidewalks and crosswalks.

  • @surber17 – I was in contact today with the Franklin County Commissioner’s office and they are checking to see if a construction cam will be in place.
    @Walker – I hadn’t thought of a tunnel but that would seem ideal over the skybridge! Nice!

  • Walker just wanted to get a subconscious plug in for his website. ;)

  • Not sure if this was brought up in another thread, but wouldn’t a sky bridge kill any plans for a streetcar?

  • RE: “new Hyatt Place hotel in Grandview Yard, which opens in September, a six-story hotel at the former Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe site.”

    The Hyatt Place hotel is actually located at the corner of THIRD and OLENTANGY, not at the site of the former Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe (which was actually located off of FIFTH AVE.)
    The exterior of the Hyatt went up seemingly just as fast as the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe came down.

    …Now if only Grandview Yard could get Trader Joes to commit to phase II or III…..

  • Exciting, I hope it brings in some trade shows, we are a up and coming tech city so lets have some tech shows here!

  • “The Hyatt Place hotel is actually located at the corner of THIRD and OLENTANGY, not at the site of the former Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe (which was actually located off of FIFTH AVE.)
    The exterior of the Hyatt went up seemingly just as fast as the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe came down.”

    The Hyatt Place on is off Goodale and near Northwest Blvd off a newly created road for the Grandview Yard (I think it’s Yard St). At 3rd and Olentangy is Gowdy III aka OSU Medcenter Cancer Outpatient center for women that is being leased by OSU for 20 for $73 million. At the former site of the Buckeye hall of fame is a new 6 story 134 room with a 10 year tax abatement under the SpringHill Suites hotel brand.

  • @ashleyashipley : Sorry, that read a little funny, but I was listing off four separate hotel projects: The Pizzuti Hotel, Hyatt Place, A Hotel at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe Site (which I haven’t seen a name for anywhere yet), and Hotel Indigo.

  • FYI, the former Buckeye Hall of Fame is going to be a SpringHill Suites which is a brand of Marriott (not sure if this has changed as the article is old)

    http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/10/05/story2.html?b=1254715200^2200661

  • Actually, yeah… you’re right. SpringHill Suites. I forgot that it had been named: http://www.columbusunderground.com/the-315-hotel-corridor-is-under-construction

  • so are there any tangible plans to make a bid for the the NHL all-star game once this thing is up and humming?

  • Start feeding those meters now, people. We’ve got a new hotel to pay for.  :]

  • Walker – great idea about a tunnel under the viaduct – which in some respects would be not much of a tunnel at all.

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