DALLAS— Dozens of local hotel developments here were delayed after the Sept. 11 attacks— including the Sofitel and Gaylord Opryland Texas Resort & Convention Center— but despite the difficult economy, at least three new projects are getting ready to debut in the market. Among the new projects is the Hotel ZaZa, set to open in late October and owned by Oklahoma City businessman Charles Givens, who has spent more than a year developing the boutique property. Other new hotels include the 150-room Hilton Garden Inn in Allen, which will debut in a couple of weeks, and 11-story Hilton Suites, currently under construction and expected to open in mid-October. While all three of these developments are moving on schedule, several area hotels were put on hold this past year. The 1,510-room Gaylord Opryland Texas Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine postponed completion until April 2004. And plans for a Ritz-Carlton and Hotel Sofitel in Turtle Creak have either been canceled or delayed. In addition, the only full-service hotel to open late last year, the Westin Beechwood, wound up in foreclosure. Despite the challenges, Givens said he never considered delaying Hotel ZaZa, a 146-room boutique property going up in the McKinney Avenue corridor. “There hasnt been a full-service hotel built in this area since the Crescent [Court], and thats almost 20 years ago,” he said. Gemstone Hospitality will operate the hotel. Developer Ted Pittman said the local hotel market was already soft when construction started on the Hilton Garden Inn in Allen last summer, but that did not deter him. “Weve got the only full-service hotels in the [Allen] area, and, more important, we have more than 10,000 square feet of convention and meeting space,” he said. Rick Martin, vp/development for the Harrington Hotel Group developer of the Hilton Suites, is counting on being the newest hotel in the LBJ Freeway corridor and the only Hilton full-service property in area to draw in business. A Hilton franchise hotel nearby is changing affiliations, said Martin. During the first half of 2002, citywide hotel occupancy levels in Dallas-Fort Worth dropped 3% to an average of 60%. SOURCE: Dallas Morning News
