RALEIGH - CREDIT CRUNCH HAMPERS HOTELS
Raleigh, North Carolina. Nearly Sixty-Five Percent of Planned Downtown Hotel Rooms Threatened. Bob Winston, president of Winston Hospitality says the credit markets are in a deep freeze. This deep freeze might mean that 500 of the 850 rooms currently planned for the downtown area might never be built. This at a time when the opening of the new convention center is only six months away. Winston pulled the plug on a 25-story hotel and 200 condos at Hillsborough and Harrington streets. The other credit crunch casualties are the 136 room boutique by Reynolds Co. and the 22-story condo-hotel by Empire Properties. Whether or not these projects are just delayed and not down for the count remains to be seen. Either way it causes convention planners to rethink whether or not the Raleigh Convention Center can continue to be in the running as a site for their conventions.
With the inclusion of the new 400 room Marriott hotel the downtown inventory of rooms will soon rise to 950. That is enough rooms to handle a convention of 1,200 people. As the convention center will be able to handle conventions of 5,000 people the shortfall of hotel rooms could prove very costly to the center’s convention business. Convention planners say 600 more close-in hotel rooms are needed to attract mid-size trade shows. While other hotel companies and developers are giving serious consideration to building hotels near downtown Raleigh, “maybe”, “perhaps” or “we’ll see” is not rooms you can count on.
John Fish (919) 696-3474 Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com Website: www.JohnFish.com
