LUBBOCK | Memorial Civic Center Hotel | FT | 16 FLOORS

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Developer: Pearl Hospitality
Architect: DLR Group
Type: Hotel, 300 rooms
Location: Mac Davis Ln & Ave L, Downtown
Construction Timeline: 2018 Start Date - ? Completion

Lubbock City Council considering Civic Center Hotel project

The Lubbock City Council approved a market feasibility study for a Civic Center Hotel on Thursday night. The vote was 7-0.

The study will be funded by the Central Business District TIF and is expected to cost $5,000 to $10,000.

The TIF voted in its Nov. 7 meeting to ask the council for the study after accepting a recommendation from its committee charged with studying the viability and recommending an owner for a civic center hotel.

The recommendation, after looking at proposals from two companies that operate hotels in Lubbock, was for Pearl Hospitality to be the private partner in what is anticipated to be a public/private partnership.

The city of Lubbock would utilize a provision in state statutes that allows the city to use the city's portion of the hotel occupancy tax to bond and pay for an anticipated $16 million that will pay for the first floor common area.

According to Moffett, the statute requires that the hotel be located within 1,000 feet of the civic center and that the city own the land and the portion of the building that it finances.

Once it has received the feasibility study, the council could vote as early as March 2017 to approve a Master Developer Agreement. Until this is done, no funds are committed other than the study funded by the TIF.

"We've all got lots and lots of questions, and this study will let us answer them," said Councilwoman Latrelle Joy, "Nothing is being decided tonight."

The hotel would begin construction sometime in 2018 after the design is complete for the hotel and common area. According to Moffett, the owner of the hotel would pay 2/3 of the architectural and design costs and the city would pay 1/3 of the costs.

The 300-bed hotel is expected to cost a total of $86 million. That includes the $16 million participation by the city for the portion that the city owns. The initial study says that the projected occupancy rate the first year is 63 percent, at an average rate of $165.

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