Two new hotels announced for downtown Salt Lake City
By Jasen Lee, Deseret News
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86558...ed-for-downtown-Salt-Lake-City.html?pg=2
SALT LAKE CITY — The downtown landscape will soon be adding two new hotels, but elected officials and business leaders have differing opinions on what the new projects mean for the future of a convention center property.
Maryland-based Alex. Brown Realty Inc., in conjunction with PEG Development and Blue Diamond Capital, both based in Utah County, announced Tuesday a joint venture to develop two hotels, a structured parking garage and mixed-use retail on a 3.26-acre site on the southwest corner of 100 South and 300 West, adjacent to EnergySolutions Arena. The site is located in close proximity to the Salt Palace Convention Center, Temple Square, City Creek Center and The Gateway.
Construction of the project will occur in two phases, with the first phase consisting of a 159-room, extended-stay Hyatt House hotel and a 349-space parking garage...
...Meanwhile, supporters say a 1,000-room convention center hotel would put Utah’s capital city on equal footing with other similarly sized metro areas such as Denver, Nashville, Phoenix or San Antonio.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said planners for nearly 30 conventions that chose not to come to Utah cited the absence of a central headquarter hotel as the main reason.
Even if a fraction of those lost conventions had chosen Salt Lake City, then the economic benefits would have been “incredible,” he added...
...“If we are able to get a headquarter hotel, then we’ll see spillover benefits to other hotels in the area,” McAdams explained. “The development of the new properties just shows that there is energy and economic growth in that (area of downtown).”
Despite the addition of the extended-stay hotels, the development of a convention hotel would be mutually beneficial to the market segments served by each type of property.
Jason Mathis, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, also voiced support for the new project, calling it “the evolution” of that area of downtown. He added that while the new project is good for the community “from a development perspective,” the new hotels would not attract many new travelers to Salt Lake City.
“Nobody should confuse these hotels with a full-service convention hotel that will actually bring new, larger conventions and convention delegates to our community,” Mathis said. “Limited-service hotels compete on rate for existing business, whereas a large convention center hotel next to the Salt Palace will actually bring new business and ultimately raise the daily rates for every other property.”
Rep. Jacob Anderegg, R-Orem, who voted against the bill, said the new hotels likely will have a negative impact on the future of a headquarter hotel property.
“It takes away the emphasis of having a new convention center hotel built in Salt Lake County,” Anderegg said. “If you bring in new hotels, that hurts bringing in a convention center because you’re creating more supply than demand.”
The assessment of convention hotel supporters who claim, “If you build it, they will come,” he said, is overstated.
Anderegg conceded that a convention hotel could potentially be a “boon for the state,” but the proposal put forth in the Legislature gave away “too much of the bank.” Offering tax-free operation for two decades is too much for taxpayers to burden, he said...
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