New Hotels

[dan326]

I went on the Holiday Inn website and it looks like both the Zachary and Gonzales are getting a Holiday Inn Express.

[itsjustme3]

I'm pretty sure I read that all Holiday Inns are being remodeled to Expresses. These are just remodelings.

[dan326]

Well the website says that the Gonzales hotel will be within walking distance of Tanger and there is a new hotel going up behind Tanger.

I'm pretty sure Best Wesrtern is the only chain hotel in Zachary.

Edited January 15, 2011 by dan326

[yis2003yis]

the zachary Holiday inn was built from the ground up right across the street from the best western and it looks real nice!

[byrde]

Hey guys what kind of hotel is that on Siegen at Industrialplex?

Never mind. I found the name.

Edited January 17, 2011 by byrde

[dan326]

Here's a new rendering of the Hampton Inn. I'm not sure which on I prefer, but still glad something nice is getting built.

"New rendering released for downtown hotel

A new rendering for the $17 million Hampton Inn & Suites that will be built downtown has been released. Work is set to begin this spring on the 137-room hotel, which will be located at Main and Lafayette streets. The hotel will include meeting space, a fitness room and a seating area overlooking downtown. The hotel is set to open in late 2012. Windsor/Aughtry Co. of Greenville, S.C., which has done similar Hampton Inn projects in Greenville, Columbia, S.C., and Tallahassee, Fla., is the developer, along with Richard Preis."

from buisnessreport.com

Edited January 24, 2011 by dan326

[Antrell Williams]

Beautiful rendering.

[xav13r]

Oh, this is nice.

[bobby255BR]

Oh I likes!

Finally something different instead of a another bland white building and overused art deco design; not to knock the other two hotels or the state buildings. I love the use of brick though it kinda gives me a "mid city" feel and I especially love the use of the red letters.

I really hope that this is the final rendering though i would love some more height.

[buckett5425]

Its great to see more development downtown, especially a more budget friendly hotel! However, I am disappointed by the Post-Modern style of the hotel. I thought we had moved past that architectural movement?

[dan326]

What are the the other options?

[Antrell Williams]

I personally like this style. Another option is modern.

[richyb83]

Thanks for posting this Dan...great looking rendering; could be better/worse with architecture but another surface parking lot filled! That should really add some life to the northern end! And compliment the Kress & Levy Bldg!! Guess they can use the state parking garages after 5:00pm??

Good to see you posting again Bobby255BR Totally agree...it's better than the bland white...and a city's Tallest Hotel belongs downtown; esp along the riverfront! Not 4 miles away off I-10 & College Drive

Buckett...how about something like this??

*Hotel Indigo - San Diego

[cajun]

The new rendering for the Hampton looks much better than the old ones.

Downright nice for a mid priced hotel chain.

[itsjustme3]

Here's a new rendering of the Hampton Inn. I'm not sure which on I prefer, but still glad something nice is getting built.

"New rendering released for downtown hotel

A new rendering for the $17 million Hampton Inn & Suites that will be built downtown has been released. Work is set to begin this spring on the 137-room hotel, which will be located at Main and Lafayette streets. The hotel will include meeting space, a fitness room and a seating area overlooking downtown. The hotel is set to open in late 2012. Windsor/Aughtry Co. of Greenville, S.C., which has done similar Hampton Inn projects in Greenville, Columbia, S.C., and Tallahassee, Fla., is the developer, along with Richard Preis."

from buisnessreport.com

Main and Lafayette? Is that where he river place condos were going to be?

Edited January 25, 2011 by itsjustme2

[richyb83]

No...River Place would be across the street; off the pic to the right

[richyb83]

Good article from BusinessReport some of you may have already seen...a lot of what we have been talking about here on UP..the Hotel Indigo opening soon will be a nice compliment to the Hilton across the street..still some say the BR hotel market could become overbuilt...

Rooms To Go

Downtown Baton Rouge, which as recently as early 2001 had no functioning hotels, will have three once the Indigo opens, with more potentially on the way.

Still, Schneider doesn’t think the market is saturated. The way he sees it, there are four hotel corridors in the city: Metro Airport, Corporate Boulevard/College Drive, Interstate 10/Siegen Lane/Bluebonnet Boulevard and downtown. He says downtown has enough of a built-in clientele with government and financial business, as well as tourists, to support three hotels and also the planned 137-room Hampton Inn & Suites at Lafayette and Main streets.

“The goal is to move into the next level of convention cities,” he says, adding that studies show at least 1,000 rooms are needed to get there. “Even with our addition, we’re only at 700 rooms. You add the Hampton’s 150, you’re at 850. So we still have room to grow.”

Baton Rouge will never match New Orleans as a convention draw. The idea is that more hotel rooms, along with the expanded River Center, could help the city compete on the second tier. Paul Arrigo, CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, says he’d like to see 1,000 to 1,200 rooms downtown. “It’s not the business we lost, it’s the business we don’t even go after,” he says. “Mobile, Little Rock and similar cities have more hotel rooms downtown than we have.”

Many cities have taken the approach that if you build it, they will come to convention-draw downtown hotels. But a study by San Antonio-based hotel consultants Source Strategies says this could be a mistake. “The increase in market demand generated by these [convention headquarters] hotels is an absolute zero,” the study states. The firm’s research says such hotels simply absorb existing demand, and it suggests public subsidies for new hotels might be a bad deal for taxpayers.

*entire article*

http://www.businessreport.com/news/2011/jan/25/rooms-go-gnit1/

[dan326]

I think they should of used a different tagline. While it is definitely true that it would be better for Baton Rouge to be a second tier city than what it is now, using that as the pitch doesn't really sound like all that good of a goal.

Edited February 1, 2011 by dan326

[buckett5425]

eet..still some say the BR hotel market could become overbuilt...

I know, this isn't your opinion Richy, but this is such a tired argument from the "naysayers." If and when the Baton Rouge market is over built, its not downtown that will suffer, its the suburban hotels that will! Downtown can continue to use way more hotel rooms, basically, we are simply shifting hotel rooms from the suburbs to downtown. Yes, other suburban hotels will close eventually through the next few years, but, thats how the free market works, right? Follow demand?

[richyb83]

For sure buckett...hotels belong downtown..it's a new day! It still blows my mind there were NO hotels downtown from 1985-2001..16 years! Baffling..I can remember green ferns growing thru the cracks of the Hilton Capitol Center....the eyesore was an embarrassment and supposedly marked the death of downtown from naysayers.

I've always been curious how they can determine the correct amount of hotel rooms in a city?? I don't see why Downtown can't support around 1,200 rooms...I need to count the no. of rooms around BR's largest hotel district at near College/I-10...The current Marriott (built in 70's) triggered a domino-effect of many more hotels.

[dan326]

Ok so this is off topic and on topic at the same time. I didn't think about how movies take up hotel rooms. And there's people like the Twilight fan(atics) who'll visit Baton Rouge during production and for years afterwards to see where the people walked.

'Film commission says movie industry spent $196 million in B.R.The movie industry spent $196 million on filming in Baton Rouge during 2010, far and away the most that productions have spent locally. In 2009, formerly the biggest year, movie spending pumped $72 million into the Baton Rouge economy, says Amy Mitchell-Smith, executive director of the local film commission. Mitchell-Smith credited the big year-to-year jump on three blockbuster movies that shot in Baton Rouge late last year: Battleship and parts one and two of Twilight: Breaking Dawn. "Those gave us a huge, huge, huge boost," says Mitchell-Smith. Battleship spent $67.7 million locally, while Twilight: Breaking Dawn spent $66.5 million locally. Twilight: Breaking Dawn is set to film locally through the end of the month and will pump another $32.7 million into the economy this year. Along with film-related spending, the 26 local movie productions accounted for 33,500 hotel lodging nights, the film commission says. The film commission is working on bringing in two large movie productions for the spring-summer, Mitchell-Smith says. "But our huge goal is to land a TV series," she says. "The spending for that is ongoing, and there's constant activity in the market."'

[Antrell Williams]

What kind of series do yo think BR would get? Some worn-put sitcom, over-rated cop show, or a reality show?

And this is good news for the hotel market here. With the increasing amount of movies being shot here we could really have a serious hotel district.

[cajun]

What kind of series do yo think BR would get? Some worn-put sitcom, over-rated cop show, or a reality show?

And this is good news for the hotel market here. With the increasing amount of movies being shot here we could really have a serious hotel district.

I guess they'd try to play off the vampire theme that seems to have taken hold here?

It's disturbing, but the bulk of tax advantages seem to be taken by projects that fly talent and support in from the west coast instead of hiring locally. Anyone else notice that?

[dan326]

I guess you can't change an institution overnight...

I could image they would make a over-rated cop shop. They'll call the "Long Baton of the Law" or "Red Justice"

[Antrell Williams]

There is more talent in Cali, where else would the actors come from. Hopefully something not on a set.