Posted Feb 6, 2014, 9:27 AM
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FYHA
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Houston - Wichita, KS
Posts: 3,213
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http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...ound-in-april/
Quote:
Marriott Marquis to break ground in April
Posted on February 5, 2014 | By Nancy Sarnoff
Downtown’s new 1,000-room convention center hotel will break ground April 11, the developer and city announced Wednesday.
The Marriott Marquis Houston will be built across from the George R. Brown Convention Center, connected by a pedestrian skybridge. It is scheduled to open in 2016.
“One of the key drivers in this entire process is the 2017 Super Bowl,” Dawn Ullrich, president and CEO of Houston First, said in a statement. ”It’s everyone’s intention to have the new Marriott Marquis open for business when the big game rolls into town in three years, as we did 10 years ago when the Hilton opened in December 2003 and we hosted the Super Bowl in January 2004.”
The project is being developed by RIDA Development Corp. and Houston First Corp., which operates the convention center and owns the Hilton Americas.
The project will get a boost by a recently announced plan to reshape the east side of downtown.
The Chronicle’s David Kaplan wrote this about the project last month:
Quote:
Representatives of Houston First Corp. are proposing to transform the area around the George R. Brown Convention Center into a landscaped and more walkable pedestrian-friendly city center, with more retail and less car traffic, in time for the city to host the NFL’s marquee game three years from now.
Where cars and buses now dominate the area, there would be rows of trees and tables for sipping wine and snacking on tapas.
The project, which has yet to be formally approved, would involve opening up the center’s look by replacing the front walls with paned glass that allows dramatic views; adding restaurant and retail space and shaded places for people to sit at ground level; and reducing Avenida de las Americas that runs in front to three lanes from eight.
That space currently used by cars and buses would become a landscaped pedestrian area with a row of trees and tables for sidewalk dining.
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