Downtown Houston?s second convention center hotel has the financing to move forward with an April groundbreaking, the development companies said this week.
Houston-based?Rida Development Corp.and Los Angeles-based?Ares Management LLC said in a Dec. 5 statement that they secured funding from a six-bank consortium to build the $335 million, 1,000-room hotel, which is expected to break ground April 11 and be complete in 2016.
San Francisco-based?Wells Fargo & Co.(NYSE: WFC) is the lead agent, with Birmingham-based BBVA Compass as the co-agent, for the consortium, which also includes New York-based CIT Bank (NYSE: CIT), Oklahoma City-based?MidFirst Bank, San Antonio-based?Frost Bank(NYSE: CFR) and Pittsburgh-based?PNC(NYSE: PNC).
Earlier this year, Houston First Corp. and Rida?finalized the development agreement for the hotel. At the time, they also finalized Houston First?s portion of the financing ? which funds the acquisition of the hotel site, construction of an adjacent parking garage and other improvements to the convention district ? and authorized Houston First to transfer the hotel site’s land to Rida.