White Lodging Services Corp. hopes to start construction by midsummer on a 17-story Hyatt Place hotel at Third Street and San Jacinto Boulevard in downtown Austin.

With zoning for the site — currently a parking lot — completed last year, White Lodging now is preparing to submit a site development plan to the city, the first step in a two-part approval process, said Deno Yiankes, president and CEO of investment and development for the hotel development and management company.

If the site plan is approved, White Lodging next would submit construction drawings to the city for the 296-room hotel. The approval of the drawings would allow White Lodging to obtain a building permit, which it hopes to have by late spring or early summer in preparation for the summer construction start, Yiankes said.

The all-suites hotel is expected to open 16 months later, in late 2012, he said.

White Lodging, a family-owned hotel development, ownership and management company, does not yet have financing officially lined up for the project, he said. But with a couple of existing relationships, we feel we're in a strong position to secure it in time for the midsummer start, Yiankes said.

The price for the project is still being determined.

Hyatt Place is the hotel chain's brand of hotels aimed at business travelers, with facilities for small corporate meetings and events.

White Lodging, based in Merrillville, Ind., also remains interested in building a large convention-size hotel downtown, Yiankes said.

In December 2008, the company shelved plans for a 1,000-room hotel on Congress Avenue between Second and Third streets when financing evaporated during the recession.

Bringing another convention hotel downtown, in addition to the 800-room Hilton Austin, has been a priority for Mayor Lee Leffingwell.

Yiankes said it will require a public-private partnership for such a hotel to become a reality. Four convention hotels now under construction — in Indianapolis; Washington, D.C.; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville, Tenn. — are all public-private ventures. Developers received a significant incentive package in each, with the exception of Columbus, where the city elected to own the hotel outright, Yiankes said.

If Austin city leaders are serious about a second hotel, Yiankes said, it will take a lot of different parties to come to the table to make it happen.

I still do not have a clear sense about whether they are ready to convert their sincere interest into a sincere commitment, he said.

Yiankes said White Lodging hopes to determine the city's level of commitment in the next two to three months in talks with the mayor and City Council members.

In a recent e-mail, Leffingwell wrote: While I am strongly in favor of recruiting a new convention center hotel, I don't know about the city's financial involvement yet. There could be some options available to us, but whether or not we need to pursue that course of action is undecided at this point.

Asked Wednesday to elaborate, Leffingwell said he wasn't ready to do so at this time.

A recent analysis commissioned by the city outlined the anticipated economic and tax revenue impacts of the net increase in travel to Austin that could be attributed to having a new convention center hotel. The analysis by consulting firm TXP Inc. did not address how such a hotel would be financed or make any assumptions about possible city involvement.

The study affirmed what Leffingwell and Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau officials have been saying: Austin is losing convention business, particularly large events that need 1,500 to 2,000 rooms per night in one or two hotels, because it has only one convention-size hotel.

Source: Statesman.com