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Later this afternoon we’ll be hearing an official announcement from the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority (FCCFA) about the long-awaited new Convention Center hotel project that is finally moving forward.
The new project will be located just across High Street from the Convention Center, between Vine Street and Ohio Center Way (the access street that runs underneath the Convention Center). The new hotel will be home to approximately 500 new full-service hotel rooms and rumor has it that it may end up being a Hilton, Marriott or Sheraton development. This new hotel will compliment the existing 631 room Hyatt Regency and help to keep the Convention Center competitive for bids on larger events.
The development may also include a new 15,000 sqft ballroom, a 15,000 sqft meeting space, multiple full service restaurants and bars, and a new 300-space parking garage located underneath the hotel.
The projected cost of the new hotel is $160 million and the grand opening could come as early as December 2012. Franklin County will be backing the bonds to pay for the construction of the project.
Rumor also has it that Nationwide could be considering additional private development adjacent to the hotel on currently unused land, bringing an additional 300,000+ square feet of office and retail space to the area situated between High St, Front St, and Nationwide Blvd.
To put things into perspective, Columbus currently has 1,000 full service hotel rooms near the Convention Center. Cincinnati has 3,000, Cleveland has 2,700, Indianapolis has 4,900, and Pittsburgh has 3,400. Officials at Experience Columbus have noted in the past that the number one reason Columbus is overlooked for larger conventions is our lack of full service hotel accommodations.
And finally, It’s being reported that this new hotel will contribute an additional $35 million of direct and indirect spending in the Central Ohio economy. It will also add 550 jobs and generate $2.3 million per year in tax income.
This is indeed a very exciting announcement for not only our downtown core, but our entire community. The economic and quality of life significance of this project will be immense. Details will begin emerging at the press event today and in the coming weeks. I don’t believe there should be any concerns regarding threats to the train infrastructure. Stay tuned.
Pete
Great news, especially the timing, look forward to the details. I will comment later on the design once that is released.
I am interested to hear more details what nationwide has planned for their property. Great news for downtown and the convention center.
what ever happened to the expansion of the hyatt?
Yay!
As long as it doesn’t look like this.
Please.
They better not take the char bar away!! It’s one of the FEW bars in columbus with ANY character what-so-ever!!
Please spare the Char-Bar….
From a previous thread on UrbanOhio.com in regards to Convention Center Hotels, there was an article that seemed to suggest that this proposal and the expansion tower of the Hyatt are two separate projects. According to one of the articles written for today, it seems that the new hotel being proposed would bring Columbus’ full service hotel room count to about 1500, still putting us behind the count of neighboring cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis. I would venture to guess that the Hyatt Tower is still a possibility and is still greatly needed.
Think this could put Columbus in the running for a national party convention soon? Columbus’ last bid was turned down, in part, due to lack of full-service hotel capacity.
I’m with you on that one Kyle!
Whisper voice) The Scioto Mile – The CCommons – Grandview Yard – And now This . don’t tell anyone but Columbus is starting to be a big kid city now.
Like jeffz mentioned, this is much needed to connect Downtown to the Short North. That bridge is akin to the dull 670 bridge . Remember when (oh no, I’m getting old!) you had to walk across that too to get to Downtown or the Short North? It felt like forever. High St. in this section definitely has an inclined curve that they’ll need to work with. Now there’s just one parcel of land devoted to a parking lot that needs to be filled in. Would be nice if it would happen this decade, but in any case seeing another crane Downtown will make me teary eyed.
I second the sentiment on the Drury Inn, flippin hideous. There is a rendering in the Dispatch today although it’s a rough drawing and hard to make out the scale and color schemes. I was hoping for something a bit taller but I guess the 10-12 floors will work. I’ll let my “bigger is better” motto slide this time because we desparately need this hotel, as well as a few others to compete for conventions and other events. I welcome it, bring it on.
…..and please don’t tear down the char bar.
I hope it doesn’t end up looking like poop. That rendering give me a little hope but just a little.
where’s the rendering on the Dispatch site?
Should the agrument for more hotels be in step with the light rail. We have hotels at polaris and easton that could support the overflow and the light rail could be a great mode of transport for them.( Sorry I know its a bit of topic) …..But isn’t that a win win . or are those locations already factored into the 1000 rooms?
Thanks Motorist. That rendering is boring and uninspired, but it’s probably a quickie conceptual. I really hope they do something better than another big concrete box. But this is indeed great news!
If you look at the RTKL int. webstie they have done some really awsome projects. Someone who is making decisions just needs to say this is what we want.
Will this require them to redo the High St viaduct over the tracks? I’ve never really liked the curve that it throws into this part of high street, and when they build this hotel I would love if they would just redo the street outfront to make it level. :D
Other than that, lets rennovate that convention center facade, throw in some windows, retail, restaurants, and pull it out to high a little! The way it is now makes such a dead space when compared to the vibrancy right across the street!
The article also mentions that Nationwide might consider constructing 300,000+ sq. ft. of new retail and office space on a lot they own at Front and Nationwide. This could be a pretty good size building if ever constructed. The ones facing McPherson Commons are pretty big at 7 stories and they are only around 125,000 to 140,000 sq. ft. The OSU Biomedical Tower is 265,000 at 10 stories. So I’m thinking this tower could get up to 15 stories depending on how wide it is.
Also of interesting note, I was fiddling around with Wikipedia today and found something. It shows a list of proposed office projects for downtown and mentions “Nationwide Grand Tower” at 900 feet high and set for completion around 2015. Not sure where they got that info. but that would be awesome. However, current economic times probably would not warrant a new headquarters. (although interest rates and construction costs are low) Anyways, just thought that was interesting, didn’t mean to get off the main topic of the hotel. It just caught my eye because Wikipedia is known to be pretty accurate and updated. Doubt it will actually happen.
I really think now IS the time you want to be building large projects. Costs are low and by the time you’re done the recession will be over. There could be a large new crop of tenants looking to move into office/retail.