Omaha Forums

ShawJ wrote:Can anyone provide information on why the proposed 28 story Marriott Hotel by the Qwest Center was never built?

S33 wrote:Fahey stated the Hilton design would be more pedestrian friendly and he also thought the Marriott would over shadow the Qwest Center. I think we all know the truth though.

ricko wrote:The "pedestrian friendly" line was probably just a lame excuse, but I do think that the Hilton brand was a wise choice.  It gives Hilton 'points' members a first class place to stay while in Omaha----and Marriott already has a full service hotel in Omaha.  Yeah, y'all didn't get your high-rise, but you got a classier chain.  The Hilton Omaha is also corporately owned (most are franchises), and I think these tend to be better managed and have better amenities------and in my opinion, the corporate hotels treat their employees better (better pay, better benefits, professional HR departments, etc.).  I think high rises are built for two reasons: 1) land prices, and 2) corporations like to make an advertising statement.  I predict that the more expensive land becomes downtown, the more likely you'll see high-rises built.

ShawJ wrote:Can anyone provide information on why the proposed 28 story Marriott Hotel by the Qwest Center was never built?

Mixed reviews on city-owned hotels
With the City Council poised to approve a convention center hotel, other cities offer a comparison.

By Jill Rosen | Sun Staff
   August 14, 2005

Proposed convention center hotel


Baltimore's City Council may (DID) approve a city-owned convention center hotel tomorrow. Some cities have not had success with such ventures. (Sun photo by Algerina Perna / April 11, 2005)

One morning last spring, not long before Baltimore would find itself neck-deep in divisive arguments about building a public hotel, Myrtle Beach, S.C., readers unfolding their hometown newspaper probably rubbed their eyes, thinking they'd picked up a flea market circular.

"Need some slightly used bed comforters?" a front-page story began. Have any use for a couple of hundred pillows? Tissue box covers? A lifetime supply of travel-sized soap and shampoo?

"If so, the Myrtle Beach Hotel Board Corp. has a deal for you."

Just two years after a buoyant ribbon cutting, after politicians effused over how this sleek, city-owned hotel would turn South Carolina's beach getaway into a desirable corporate destination, Myrtle Beach was hawking the soap.

Baltimore's City Council is poised to approve tomorrow a city-owned convention center hotel. Though it would be Baltimore's costliest public project, Mayor Martin O'Malley and the hotel's other fans say paying for it with $305 million in revenue bonds is not only is a bargain, but it's also all but risk-free.

But as cities across the country rush to build hotels and claim convention riches, some find horror stories and others, a mixed verdict. At best are cities like Houston. Though the opening of a new hotel hurt ones already in existence, a city official there says the extra rooms have helped to double their conventions this year.

Undaunted, hotel proponents here want their Hilton. Unleash the floodgates of meetings business, they say, watch the prosperity spill over into the entire downtown market, count the extra dollars, the sheer profit, that will roll into the city's coffers.

Myrtle Beach begs to differ.

So do St. Louis, Omaha, Neb., and Overland Park, Kan. - all cities that used public money to build hotels. Failing hotels.

Other cities playing innkeeper, places like Houston and Austin, Texas, have sunnier outlooks. While awaiting their promised convention gold rushes, they might be short of projections on room rates and occupancy goals - but they're making ends meet.

That, industry analysts say, is as good as it gets.

The convention market that Baltimore wants to further invest in is anything but a sure thing, they say. It's fraught with imbalance as more and more cities build and expand facilities and more and more of them go for headquarters hotels on the side - all to capture a meetings business that's stuttering, trying to shake off the damage from the post-Sept. 11 travel industry chill.

According to Tradeshow Week, the convention industry is slowly recovering from 2001, but not to the levels of the 1990s. In 2004, events nationwide rose 2.3 percent. Attendance, however, slipped slightly from about 51 million people to 50 million.

"The convention market right now has become quite saturated with supply, so a lot of cities are finding they have to give away the space to attract visitors," says Anne Van Praagh, an analyst for Moody's Investors Service.

Convention centers are "money losers," she says. "And now we're seeing that many of the hotels built to accommodate [them] are struggling to survive."

RockHarbor wrote:Man, what great designs....  I would love Omaha to have one of those.  Maybe someday.  

Speaking of Marriott, I wonder when the Marriott in Regency was built?  I'm thinking around 1980 or '81?  I finally was in that hotel last summer when friends of mine were staying in it...  I got to spend time in there, and hang out at the pool.  Pretty nice place...

RNcyanide wrote:I think it's been pretty well expunged from the internet.

Louie wrote:

RNcyanide wrote:I think it's been pretty well expunged from the internet.

Yeah, I just spent 30 minutes trying to find it. Why? I have no clue...

skinzfan23 wrote:Nice, how many stories was that supposed to be. I tried counting and its obvious it is over 20 but I can't tell if it is 30 or not.

Midwestern wrote:I'd still much rather have that than the Hilton though...