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Construction to begin on new hotels in Energy Corridor

 

 

By Alex Endress

Construction on two new hotels — the Courtyard by Marriott and the Hampton Inn & Suites — is set to begin this summer in the Energy Corridor, across from the Texas Medical Center-West Campus.

At 135 rooms each, the hotels will be located at the corner of Barker-Cypress Road and Park Row on the Wolff Companies’ Ten Oaks 5.2-acre area, purchased by Western International, a Dallas-based developer. The hotels will be part of the 6.6 million square feet of office space starting construction or already underway inside the Energy Corridor for 2014.

When finished, the Courtyard and Hampton Inn additions will make 26 hotels in the Energy Corridor, said David Hightower, executive vice president and chief development officer of the Wolff Companies. Hightower said that there are only three full service hotels in the area right now, including the Omni, Wyndham, and Marriot.

“The market I think is probably still somewhat underserved,” Hightower said. “When you’re traveling from around the globe, you don’t usually do that on a one- or two-day hop — it’s usually for a week or two weeks. Most people coming to the Energy Corridor to conduct their business stay for an extended period.”

The hotels will target business people traveling to West Houston for work, as well as families and patients being treated at the Texas Medical Center-West Campus.

“Texas Children’s West Campus, for example, serves the greater West Houston market — everything outside of Beltway 8, all the way out to Schulenburg, up to Bryan-College Station, and down to Wirt Road,” Hightower said. “Unfortunately, some people have children who need to stay at Texas Children’s for a few days. Not everybody runs back and fourth from Schulenburg to Houston.”
Customers of the new propertiews will be able to utilize several available meeting rooms, multiuse public areas, wifi in lobbies and guestrooms, as well as a pool and fitness area. The Courtyard by Marriott offers free wifi for guests, and the Hampton Inn will feature an outdoor kitchen area around its pool, Hightower said.

“[The hotels] will accommodate a growing need for rooms and hotel product and they further establish Katy as a tourism and meeting destination,” said Lance LaCour, president of the Katy Area Economic Development Council. The hotels will have “business proximity to 200 corporate headquarter operations in the Katy Area and proximity to weddings and events at Briscoe Mannor in Richmond,” he said.

In the Energy Corridor, Western International already boasts a Residence Inn at Wolff Companies’ Park 10 area and a Marriott Hotel at I-10 and Park Ten Blvd. It was founded in the 1960s, but has been doing business exclusively with Hilton and Marriott since the 1990s. The group has developed more than 100 hotels.

For the complete article, please go to:
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/ranch/news/construction-to-begin-on-new-hotels-in-energy-corridor/article_16a5a2ef-bc4e-5be8-8c47-63b294bc1e56.html?mode=story