Riverfront hotel in downtown Columbus? This is one of the ideas being floated to developers.

The Development Authority of Columbus has thrown a wild card into the high-stakes downtown hotel game.

Last month, the authority, an arm of the city government housed at the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, sent out a Request for Qualifications to hotel owners and developers, touting three sites adjacent to the Columbus Convention & Trade Center.

The request is more subtle than the more common Request for Proposal and is designed to see whether there is any interest from hotel developers and operators across the Southeast and nation in building a property adjacent to the Trade Center, said Brian Sillitto, the chamber of commerce’s executive vice president for economic development.

“This is a continuation of a process that has been going on for many years,” Sillitto said. “... This is the completion of the Trade Center expansion, that $36 million expansion that happened many years ago. They added on to the Trade Center, but didn’t add more hotel rooms adjacent to the center, which would allow the Trade Center and the CVB (Convention & Visitors Bureau) to attract larger and more consistent conventions and trade shows.”

But it comes at a critical time for hotel construction in the downtown area. Two potential downtown hotels are in the planning and development stages in the 1200 block of Broadway, four blocks to the north.

An 88-room Hampton Inn is scheduled to be under construction this year at the northwest corner of 12th Street and Broadway. It is being built by the Pezold Companies, which through Valley Hospitality, own the 177-room Marriott adjacent to the Trade Center.

Despite a number of delays over the past two years, that project is scheduled to begin soon, said Tracy Sayers, Pezold Management Chief Operating Officer.

“That project is imminent and there is nothing that will hold it up,” Sayers said on Monday. “We got final approval from Hilton last week.”

With the Hampton project a go, Sayers said the Pezold companies plan to submit a proposal to the Development Authority on the Trade Center project.

“We are preparing a response right now,” Sayers said.

The request went out on April 13 and the application process closes on May 18. As of Friday, Sillitto said no request have been submitted yet.

In December 2016, Columbus-based RAM Hotels finalized the purchase of the Raymond Rowe property at 1225 Broadway, in the same block as the proposed Hampton Inn. RAM’s plans call for a 106-room AC Hotel, an upper end Marriott property.

An interesting aspect of the Development Authority’s request is there are three potential hotel sites adjacent to the Trade Center. The first is the area at Front Avenue and Eighth Street that is currently being used as the Marriott parking lot. The other two would likely attach a hotel to the Trade Center. One is behind the Trade Center’s parking deck along the Chattahoochee River and the other is between the Trade Center and the railroad track on Front Avenue.

The parking lot site that has always been on the radar for a new hotel or an expansion of the Marriott is a 1.75 acre-tract that the Marriott uses as its parking lot.

The authority has controlled the parking lot currently being used by the downtown Marriott for more than a decade. That area between Front Avenue and Broadway near Eighth Street has been designated for a hotel or Marriott expansion for years.

“We didn’t want to limit it to just that one site,” Sillitto said. “We have had developers in the past look at the site off the back of the parking deck that overlooks the river. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful site that could have connectivity to the Trade Center? The arrival area or the fountain area is another possibility. You would have to reimagine the whole area. But I could where a hotel could fit on this site.”

Sayers said the three sites made the request interesting.

“The most logical site is the flat parking lot that is already there,” Sayers said. “The area behind the Trade Center has a lot of appeal, but it would raise some parking issues because of the Trade Center parking. The one in front of the Trade Center is interesting, as well.”

Don’t expect anything to happen quickly in this process, Sillitto said.

“The intent of this RFQ process is to begin a conversation with one or more entities that recognize the project’s potential and demonstrate the desire to be a good long-term partner with the Columbus Convention & Trade Center and related stakeholders,” the request states. “Ultimately, the Development Authority of Columbus anticipates that from those conversations one entity will be selected who, given mutually acceptable and beneficial development terms and conditions, will be that partner.”

With the need for about 500 quality hotel rooms near the Trade Center to attract larger conventions and trade shows, the Development Authority has tried a number of times to market the site to hotel developers.

A 2009 request went nowhere because of the economic downturn at the time. In 2013, there was little interest. In April 2016, the Development Authority had a deal with a Tennessee developer on the parking lot property for a potential Hampton Inn, but the Pezold companies went to Superior Court to block it.

Judge Gil McBride ruled the Development Authority of Columbus could not close a deal with Vision Hospitality, a Chattanooga, Tenn., company, for a proposed 125-room hotel. The Development Authority appealed the decision and a three-judge Georgia Court of Appeals panel overturned McBride in March of last year.

This time, the Development Authority wants hotel developers to tell it what makes sense, Sillitto said.

“This is a remarkable facility,” Sillitto said. “It just doesn’t have enough hotel rooms adjacent to it. As more and more people come to Columbus for trade shows, what does that do to the volume of foot traffic in the uptown area? This is economic development in its purest form.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2018 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Riverfront hotel in downtown Columbus? This is one of the ideas being floated to developers.."