Convention center hotel moves forward for spring groundbreaking
Downtown Houston?s second convention center hotel has the financing to move forward with an April groundbreaking, the development companies said this week.
Houston-based?Rida Development Corp.and Los Angeles-based?Ares Management LLC said in a Dec. 5 statement that they secured funding from a six-bank consortium to build the $335 million, 1,000-room hotel, which is expected to break ground April 11 and be complete in 2016.
San Francisco-based?Wells Fargo & Co.(NYSE: WFC) is the lead agent, with Birmingham-based BBVA Compass as the co-agent, for the consortium, which also includes New York-based CIT Bank (NYSE: CIT), Oklahoma City-based?MidFirst Bank, San Antonio-based?Frost Bank(NYSE: CFR) and Pittsburgh-based?PNC(NYSE: PNC).
Earlier this year, Houston First Corp. and Rida?finalized the development agreement for the hotel. At the time, they also finalized Houston First?s portion of the financing ? which funds the acquisition of the hotel site, construction of an adjacent parking garage and other improvements to the convention district ? and authorized Houston First to transfer the hotel site’s land to Rida.