azdad1978
Championship!!!!
Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 4, 2005 06:03 PM
A national hotel developer plans to break ground this year on a 12-story Renaissance Hotel at Glendale's Westgate City Center, filling a crucial niche in the city's sports-and-entertainment complex and giving the West Valley a sorely needed luxury addition to its hospitality portfolio.
The plan, to be considered Tuesday by the Glendale City Council, calls for a privately financed 320-room boutique hotel and an adjacent city-owned conference center to be completed by September 2006, in time for the opening of the new Cardinals Stadium next door. The stadium is expected to host the national collegiate championship football game in January 2007 and an NFL Super Bowl in 2008.
Scott Tarwater, spokesman for Missouri-based John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc., pegged the hotel's cost at about $40 million, though Westgate developer Steve Ellman anticipated a cost of $50 million to $60 million.
An 80,000-square-foot conference center, which would be one of the Valley's largest, will be attached to the hotel. The center, whose cost is estimated in the $40 million range, will be financed primarily by the city, though Hammons tentatively has agreed to finance at least 25 percent of the debt service on the facility, Glendale City Manager Ed Beasley said.
Hammons, a publicly traded company that owns or manages more than 50 hotels in 22 states, will operate the hotel and conference center under Marriott's upscale Renaissance Hotels & Resorts brand, Tarwater said.
Ellman said he introduced Hammons to the project and the city three years ago, with talks ongoing since then.
"We're three years ahead of where we said we'd be on our first hotel," Ellman said. "This really sets the stage - it gives me a major competitive advantage in the West Valley."
Hammons also has committed to bring a second hotel to Westgate within two years, with an option for a third sometime in the future, Beasley said.
Litchfield Park's Wigwam Resort & Golf Club is the only other upscale west-side lodging accessible to the stadium and Glendale Arena. Hammons views that vacuum as an opportunity.
"With the upcoming stadium and the arena out there, and retail moving out that way . . . we think we'll be right in the path of growth," Tarwater said. John Q. Hammons, 86, the company's founder, has developed more than 150 hotels from the ground up and will use personal funds to develop the Glendale property, which will be managed by his company.
Like the sports facilities they will serve, the hotel and conference center will compete with downtown Phoenix for business. In recent months, Phoenix has discussed plans for a 1,000-room, publicly funded hotel and a 175- to 200-room, privately financed boutique hotel to complement Phoenix Civic Plaza's expansion for major convention business downtown.
Glendale hopes to snare a share of the meeting-and-convention business for the stadium/arena complex, with the hotel and conference center easily complementing the sports and entertainment activities at both venues.
Industry experts project an increase in local hotel occupancy during the coming year. The Spring 2005 Marcus & Millichap Hospitality Research Report projects 742 new hotel rooms being built in the Phoenix area during 2005, not including the Glendale facility.
One or two multilevel parking decks will accompany the 12-story hotel and conference center. The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority and Global Spectrum, a company that will manage Cardinals Stadium, are in discussions with Glendale and Hammons about joint booking of stadium and conference-center events, such as trade shows, mid-size conventions, concerts and other major sporting activities.
"We think it makes our facility more attractive, and we think we make the hotel and conference center more attractive," sports authority President Ted Ferris said Monday. "We can drive business their way, and they can drive business our way."
The hotel's Marriott affiliation also will allow joint marketing for certain events with other Valley Marriott properties, officials said, notably Marriott's Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in north Phoenix.
The stadium itself has roughly 200,000 square feet of usable space for trade shows or conventions, Beasley said, which could be coupled with meeting rooms at the conference center to host major events.
Glendale also is considering the inclusion of a media center atop the conference center to house the city's cable-television operation, pressrooms for sporting events, a television studio for visiting media, and satellite uplink equipment for broadcasters covering events at the stadium or arena.
That facility could add 20,000 to 40,000 square feet to the size of the conference center, Ellman said.
"This makes it a full conference and sports center," Beasley said.
Deputy City Manager Art Lynch said the city would finance its share of the conference center's cost through bonding. The cost could go as high as $40 million, including parking facilities and other infrastructure. However, the city expects to recoup much of its expense through corresponding increases in various revenue streams, including city hotel-room and bed taxes, restaurant and bar taxes, parking revenues and sales taxes from spillover retail activity at Westgate.
The city also expects the new project to create 180 to 300 jobs, Lynch said.
Tarwater said the conference center is an important component of the deal for Hammons, because it will help the hotel attract large groups to the facility. Tarwater said the company's owner strongly believes in the future of the site, though he knows the area is not yet fully developed and "he well knows it may take a couple of years to perform to industry and financial standards."
It will be the first Hammons property in the Valley, though the company operates Tucson's Marriott University Park Hotel and the Holiday Inn Palo Verde at Tucson International Airport. Renaissance Hotels & Resorts also operates the Renaissance Scottsdale Resort.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/0404hotelwest-ON.html
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 4, 2005 06:03 PM
A national hotel developer plans to break ground this year on a 12-story Renaissance Hotel at Glendale's Westgate City Center, filling a crucial niche in the city's sports-and-entertainment complex and giving the West Valley a sorely needed luxury addition to its hospitality portfolio.
The plan, to be considered Tuesday by the Glendale City Council, calls for a privately financed 320-room boutique hotel and an adjacent city-owned conference center to be completed by September 2006, in time for the opening of the new Cardinals Stadium next door. The stadium is expected to host the national collegiate championship football game in January 2007 and an NFL Super Bowl in 2008.
Scott Tarwater, spokesman for Missouri-based John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc., pegged the hotel's cost at about $40 million, though Westgate developer Steve Ellman anticipated a cost of $50 million to $60 million.
An 80,000-square-foot conference center, which would be one of the Valley's largest, will be attached to the hotel. The center, whose cost is estimated in the $40 million range, will be financed primarily by the city, though Hammons tentatively has agreed to finance at least 25 percent of the debt service on the facility, Glendale City Manager Ed Beasley said.
Hammons, a publicly traded company that owns or manages more than 50 hotels in 22 states, will operate the hotel and conference center under Marriott's upscale Renaissance Hotels & Resorts brand, Tarwater said.
Ellman said he introduced Hammons to the project and the city three years ago, with talks ongoing since then.
"We're three years ahead of where we said we'd be on our first hotel," Ellman said. "This really sets the stage - it gives me a major competitive advantage in the West Valley."
Hammons also has committed to bring a second hotel to Westgate within two years, with an option for a third sometime in the future, Beasley said.
Litchfield Park's Wigwam Resort & Golf Club is the only other upscale west-side lodging accessible to the stadium and Glendale Arena. Hammons views that vacuum as an opportunity.
"With the upcoming stadium and the arena out there, and retail moving out that way . . . we think we'll be right in the path of growth," Tarwater said. John Q. Hammons, 86, the company's founder, has developed more than 150 hotels from the ground up and will use personal funds to develop the Glendale property, which will be managed by his company.
Like the sports facilities they will serve, the hotel and conference center will compete with downtown Phoenix for business. In recent months, Phoenix has discussed plans for a 1,000-room, publicly funded hotel and a 175- to 200-room, privately financed boutique hotel to complement Phoenix Civic Plaza's expansion for major convention business downtown.
Glendale hopes to snare a share of the meeting-and-convention business for the stadium/arena complex, with the hotel and conference center easily complementing the sports and entertainment activities at both venues.
Industry experts project an increase in local hotel occupancy during the coming year. The Spring 2005 Marcus & Millichap Hospitality Research Report projects 742 new hotel rooms being built in the Phoenix area during 2005, not including the Glendale facility.
One or two multilevel parking decks will accompany the 12-story hotel and conference center. The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority and Global Spectrum, a company that will manage Cardinals Stadium, are in discussions with Glendale and Hammons about joint booking of stadium and conference-center events, such as trade shows, mid-size conventions, concerts and other major sporting activities.
"We think it makes our facility more attractive, and we think we make the hotel and conference center more attractive," sports authority President Ted Ferris said Monday. "We can drive business their way, and they can drive business our way."
The hotel's Marriott affiliation also will allow joint marketing for certain events with other Valley Marriott properties, officials said, notably Marriott's Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in north Phoenix.
The stadium itself has roughly 200,000 square feet of usable space for trade shows or conventions, Beasley said, which could be coupled with meeting rooms at the conference center to host major events.
Glendale also is considering the inclusion of a media center atop the conference center to house the city's cable-television operation, pressrooms for sporting events, a television studio for visiting media, and satellite uplink equipment for broadcasters covering events at the stadium or arena.
That facility could add 20,000 to 40,000 square feet to the size of the conference center, Ellman said.
"This makes it a full conference and sports center," Beasley said.
Deputy City Manager Art Lynch said the city would finance its share of the conference center's cost through bonding. The cost could go as high as $40 million, including parking facilities and other infrastructure. However, the city expects to recoup much of its expense through corresponding increases in various revenue streams, including city hotel-room and bed taxes, restaurant and bar taxes, parking revenues and sales taxes from spillover retail activity at Westgate.
The city also expects the new project to create 180 to 300 jobs, Lynch said.
Tarwater said the conference center is an important component of the deal for Hammons, because it will help the hotel attract large groups to the facility. Tarwater said the company's owner strongly believes in the future of the site, though he knows the area is not yet fully developed and "he well knows it may take a couple of years to perform to industry and financial standards."
It will be the first Hammons property in the Valley, though the company operates Tucson's Marriott University Park Hotel and the Holiday Inn Palo Verde at Tucson International Airport. Renaissance Hotels & Resorts also operates the Renaissance Scottsdale Resort.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/0404hotelwest-ON.html
Gearge Dubbya's own job development program nearly equal to the Hoover Dam!! 
Just a thought, how many successful superbowls have been more than 20-30 miles from the majority of hotel rooms and entertainment? The ambiance and experience isn't the same as the old SDS experience where everything was within walking distance or a brief cab ride. And yes, they are talking 320 deluxe boutique rooms in three years is it? We just need to add about 5000 more. How many did Jacksonville have? I am grateful for the Cards own stadium that I will rarely see unless I am driving by it on my way to business in Surprise or Williams but wish it could have been downtown. And yes, I am one of those darn East valley fans!!
