Dallas City Council Throws CVB an Anchor

Dallas tourism officials have warned the city that, if they couldn't get an anchor hotel next to the Dallas Convention Center soon, they might just fall irrevocably behind other cities in the chase for tradeshows and conventions.

The Dallas City Council took one big step closer to finally answering the tourism officials' requests with a May 14 11-2 vote in favor of purchasing land from Chavez Properties for the anchor hotel at Lamar and Young streets, literally at the front door of the Dallas CC. The council also authorized the city staff to pursue negotiations with developers for a publicly owned convention center anchor hotel that would be built on the site.

“The Dallas City Council's vote today was a huge step forward in making the convention center hotel a reality,” said Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau. “This action speaks to their commitment to the convention and meetings industry, and their desire to see Dallas once more emerge as a major destination for conventions and meetings of every size.”

The bureau was so committed to securing the land that it put up $500,000 as a deposit, even before the council gave the go-ahead to buy it. The bureau's gamble paid off and on May 15, the day after the city council's first vote, it also authorized the necessary measures to move forward with the financing of the project, according to Frank Poe, director of the Dallas CC.

The bureau and the center, along with other industry partners, have been working hard to get an anchor hotel at the center for a long time. But, Poe said, it was a May 5 briefing for the city council, “a culmination of the foundation of everything done in the past,” that finally moved city leaders to act. A key element of the proposal that may have helped the city council make its decision was the fact that the hotel would be publicly, not privately, owned.

“I feel the council really understands the risk and reward to public ownership,” Poe said.

Public ownership of a convention center hotel isn't unheard of. Jones cited similar arrangements already in place in Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Houston; and Denver.

“It's a huge cost savings,” he added. “City tax bonds can be used, instead of private.” That, according to Jones, could save Dallas up to $100 million of what's estimated to be a $500 million project.

Poe said the next step in the process is to take the four developers interested in the project and, by mid-June, present the top choice to the city council and rank the rest in order.

“We'll plow through (the list) until we get a deal that's in the best interest of the city,” he added.

If all goes well, Jones said, “by the fall, shovels will be in the ground with a completion in 2011.”

The hotel is expected to have 1,200 rooms and a minimum of 140,000 square feet of meeting space.