Dallas Hotel Gets Closer

The longtime goal of Dallas tourism officials to have a convention center hotel got one step closer to reality with a 10-2 vote by the Dallas City Council Feb. 13 that secured a tract of land adjacent to the facility.

“It's a very important first step,” said Philip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, “the most significant one we've had on this issue in the last two years, and we're very proud of that.”

The bureau was so committed to getting the parcel, Jones said, that it contributed $500,000 toward the deposit on the land purchase. “There is a risk of losing the money if the city doesn't close on the (deal) by September,” he added.

But, Jones said, the intention is to have a funding mechanism and developer in place by May when he returns to the city council for what he hoped would be another “yes” vote on the proposed hotel.

Jones and other community leaders, including newly elected Mayor Tom Leppert, have warned that without an anchor hotel at the Dallas Convention Center, which would include more meeting space and a surrounding entertainment district, Dallas could slip from its No. 6 position on the TSW 200 and lose some of its eight shows on the list.

“We cannot reach our potential as a destination without an (anchor) hotel,” Jones told a sold-out crowd at a luncheon to celebrate the bureau and center's 50th anniversaries in November. “There are 80 groups that won't come here because they have outgrown the city.”

At the same luncheon, Leppert added, “We will have great difficulty reaching our goal of becoming a top-five destination without such a hotel.”