Hotel project ensures city has room to grow

Huntsville today planned to kick off a downtown convention hotel project complete with a 1,100-foot canal, an arched bridge over the waterway and a climate-controlled skyway to the Von Braun Center.

Gov. Bob Riley, hotel executive John Q. Hammons and state Tourism Director Lee Sentell were to join Mayor Loretta Spencer, City Council members and others this morning for the groundbreaking.

The $40 million, 10-story Embassy Suites hotel is to open in early 2006.

Hammons, founder and chief executive officer of John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc., said the hotel should help meet the needs of the city's growing tourism and convention business.

"With a luxurious interior and top-notch amenities, I am confident that the Embassy Suites hotel will not only meet the goals and objectives of the city, but undoubtedly exceed the expectations of its guests," he said.

The hotel will be Hammons' second Embassy Suites in Alabama - the other is in Montgomery - and his 20th nationwide. In his five decades in the hotel business, Hammons has developed 150 hotels in 40 states under banners that include Marriott, Sheraton, Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn.

"I know all about your town. I didn't go into this blindly,'' Hammons said here in May when unveiling the design.

Officials believe the new 300-room Embassy Suites, along with the 288-room Huntsville Hilton across the street, will greatly improve the city's ability to lure bigger conventions and events to the VBC.

Spencer wanted a hotel ribbon-cutting ceremony in fall 2005 as part of the city's 200th anniversary celebration. Technical snags delayed groundbreaking to September, pushing the projected opening to early 2006.

Today's shovel-turning comes at a good time for Spencer politically as she heads toward Tuesday's runoff election against Parker Griffith.

Hammons' development deal with the city, approved by the City Council last September, calls for major city improvements, including building the canal, relocating a utility substation, realigning the Monroe Street-Williams Avenue intersection, building a major new connector road off Memorial Parkway, and making major drainage improvements.

The city is building the parking lot for the hotel, but Hammons is repaying the debt on it. The parking lot includes 130 underground and 220 surface slots.

The city will spend up to $1 million to renovate the VBC's South Hall and up to $750,000 for an enclosed, overhead walkway connecting the VBC to the hotel. The state is paying the estimated $11.25 million tab for the downtown connector road, while much of the drainage work will be paid for with federal grants. The canal extension will jut off the nearby Big Spring Lagoon. It will be flanked by sidewalks and landscaping and provide a pathway to extend Big Spring International Park through the hotel site.

Hammons intended to build an Embassy Suites downtown a decade ago, but the City Council backed out of the deal in the face of intense public opposition. That plan called for nearly $7 million in city tax money and a loan from the state pension fund. Hammons sued for breach of contract. After a 10-day trial in 1996, a federal jury ordered the city to pay him $547,515 in damages.

Sentell, the state's tourism director, said a headquarters convention hotel is long overdue for Huntsville.

"The city desperately needs this hotel to remain competitive for regional and national conventions,'' said Sentell, who was director of tourism for the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau from 1991 until he was chosen for the state job in 2003.

Major hotels are also going up in Mobile, Montgomery and the Florence-Muscle Shoals area, he said.

The new Embassy Suites will feature a spa/fitness center, indoor pool, gift shop, business center and restaurant and sports bar lounge. Each of the 300 suites will have a private bedroom, living room with sofa sleeper, wet bar, refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker. Rooms will also come equipped with two color television sets, high-speed Internet service, customized voice mail, Nintendo and WebTV.