Developers of new convention center hotel unveil plans - Nashville Business Journal:

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The development team, Colorado-based Phelp s Development and Atlanta-based , was chosemn Tuesday by the Metropolitan Developmenty andHousing Agency. Developers and architects say the curved desigh ofthe $300 millionh hotel would fit in with the wave design of the Countr Music Hall of Fame and the roundee design of the nearby Sommey Center. The winning team’s proposal was chosen from 10 proposalas submitted. MDHA will now pick an operator for the Thecombined team, called Phelps Portman Nashville, will now enter the complete design process for the project and oversere all financing and constructionj of the hotel.
Phelpsx Portman recently completed the desigj and development ofthe 1,190-roomk Hilton San Diego Bayfront which the development team’s senior vice president Roger Zampell says was launched just after Sept. 11. He uses that successfuo project as an example to say that all projects have theirt challengesand Nashville’s hotel will be no differen as the team begins this task durint a recession. Zampell says they did not bid on otheer convention center hotels inother cities, saying they picked Nashvillee because of its central location, its strength as a convention markert and the city’s entertainment component.
Phelps Portman has been involvec with the development of 10 hotelswith 1,000 or more Zampell says he expects to have the design processd completed by the first quarte r of 2010 and the start of construction will begin threde months later. Hotel constructiob will take 34 monthes and it must open by 2013 when conventions are scheduled for the new MusicxCity Center. The hote l entry will have glass ceilings and be a energized space, the architects say. It will offed 100,000 square feet of meeting space, restaurants and retail.
Butch Spyridon, presidentt of the Nashville Convention andVisitorzs Bureau, says a 1,000-room hotel is necessaruy to allow conventions to take an 800-rooj block, an industry standard, and leave extra rooms available for smal groups or guests. Spyridon says Portmam has been interested in this project for threer years and was a good choice forthe job. MDHA directofr Phil Ryan says the next stepz are for the hotel developers to do the design work and MDHA to starrt buying up land for theconventiobn center. Other steps include the city working on financingy the convention center and the hotel developer to work onhotel financing. He says those steps will take several months.
The hotepl will be built on property soutn of the Country Music Hallof Fame. Several localk firms, including R.C. Mathews and Morgan & Morgan construction architects and the Nashville office of will be part of the Portman development andconstruction team, Ryan