KB0679
08-06-2007, 06:10 AM
Hotel heightens hospitality (http://www.thestate.com/news/story/137676.html)
By GINA SMITH - gnsmith@thestate.com
http://media.thestate.com/smedia/2007/08/04/19/61-Hotel01.standalone.prod_affiliate.74.jpg
The new Hilton hotel in downtown Columbia is getting finishing touches as its Friday
opening nears.
Midlands leaders are pumped that the “missing link” to the 2½-year-old regional convention center will open across the street Friday.
The long-awaited, $32 million Hilton hotel at Park and Senate streets will give visitors a place to lay their collective heads after a long day of meetings at the convention center.
Since the convention center opened in September 2004, the lack of an affiliated hotel has meant more one-day, local events — weddings and family reunions — than planners had hoped for.
Now, the privately owned Hilton should put the convention center over the top, say those involved, attracting regional and national groups and pumping millions into the economy.
Columbia should be especially attractive to larger groups that want to book hundreds of rooms within walking distance of meeting rooms, months, even years, in advance, tourism officials say.
“It opens up a new market for us, groups we couldn’t go after before,” said Ric Luber, president of the authority that oversees the convention center.
Look for groups interested in the riverfront and USC’s research campus, both blocks away, to book the convention center. Large religious and political conventions also could continue to be a draw.
But competition for those groups is fierce. Dozens of nearby cities — including Charlotte, Raleigh and Knoxville — have built their own convention complexes.
The bandwagon began six or seven years ago, market analysts say, when cities realized they could both grab new tourist dollars and spawn businesses with a convention center/hotel combo.
Including accommodations, those attending Columbia events, for example, spend $175 a day, said Dave Zunker, vice president for Columbia’s visitors bureau. The money is seen as painless, creating no drag on local services such as schools.
“That advice (to build convention centers and hotels) was good,” said Rick Swig, president of San Francisco-based hotel advisers RSBA & Associates. “But it may have been given to too many towns all at the same time.”
If Columbia’s complex is to thrive, its niche must be unique, market experts say. Officials say they’re off to a good start, booking about 700 events a year when they had hoped for 500. That’s two a day, or 350,000 visitors. All without a hotel.
According to Mack Stone, the facility’s general manager, the center’s niche focuses on:
• Being centrally located. Columbia has the state’s only downtown convention facility, and it is within walking distance of 45 bars and restaurants. Nearby are loads of attractions such as museums and Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden.
• An old-fashioned friendliness that embraces a 21st-century economy. Tourism officials are selling a new Southern city brimming with hospitality but also home to an emerging knowledge-based economy, as evidenced by USC’s research campus. USC is the center’s biggest client. The National Hydrogen Association will meet at the center in 2009, a tip to the state’s role in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
• Being cost-effective. While its prices are comparable to those in other S.C. cities, Columbia doesn’t charge for setting up tables or providing wireless Internet access, Stone said. Plus, dining out, shopping and attractions are affordable.
Tourism officials have booked 11 groups through 2009 — including the hydrogen convention — with the Hilton’s opening in mind.
But many event planners won’t say “yes” until they can taste the food and swim in the pool. Officials are courting 38 meeting planners who visited the convention center earlier and indicated interest in booking once the Hilton opened.
National groups book three to five years in advance, so local events for now will continue to fill gaps on the calendar, Stone said.
Before going with a privately owned hotel, city officials in 2004 tried to publicly finance it.
“The idea of taxpayers funding a hotel is just bizarre and unconscionable,” said Kevin Fisher, a City Council critic who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year.
When the city gave in to public pressure and pursued a private hotel, three firms sued, claiming they were owed $3.4 million for work done before the switch. The consolidated suits may go to court in 2008, say the city’s legal staffers.
In the end, city taxpayers paid the Windsor/Aughtry Co., the hotel’s Greenville developer, $6 million in subsidies to build and operate the hotel.
“There’s been a lot of political blood spilt to get here,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. “But we’ve done it. The convention center and its hotel is the cornerstone of Columbia’s renaissance.”
COLUMBIAS NEW HILTON
By the numbers
$32 million: Cost of hotel
222: Number of rooms
14: Number of regular suites
2: Number of presidential suites
$169: Price per night for an av-erage room
$599: Introductory price per night for a presidential suite
200: Number of employees
8: Number of floors
THE GOOD STUFF
The Hiltons amenities
• Two presidential and 14 junior suites
• Pool and plaza
• Room service and lobby bar provided by Ruths Chris Steak House
• Fitness center with high-end Precor equipment
• First-class business center
In every room
• 32-inch, LCD flat-panel televisions with HD channels and 100-channel cable lineup
• Copies of local photographs, provided by USCs South Caroliniana Library
• Two phones, two lines, data port and free local calls
• Complimentary wired and wireless Internet
• Crabtree and Evelyn bath and spa products
• Lighted makeup mirror
• Pacific Coast brand down comforters and pillows and 250-count, triple-sheet linens
• Lavazza Italian coffee, Bigelow hot tea
A LONG ROAD
Early 1960s: Columbia acquires land for a conference center near USCs Carolina Coliseum.
1970s: Lexington County considers Guignard family land on the West Columbia side of the river.
1978: Columbia Mayor Kirkman Finlay unveils his Congaree Vista vision; a conference center is vital.
1986: Texas developer offers Lexington a Hilton. Columbia businessmen pay $10,000 for site study. Columbia Mayor T. Patton Adams broaches a joint venture with USC.
1987: Columbia calls for ideas. Businessman Temple Ligons proposal for The Bridge, a center spanning the river, gets attention.
1988-89: Money woes stall plans on both sides of river. Lexington developer declares that site dead, citing influential Columbians sabotage.
1994: Mike Carrier, Columbia visitors bureau executive director, suggests the city and counties unite, levy a 2 percent hotel room tax, backed by hotel owners.
1996: Consultant picks Vista as best site in $60,000 city study. Columbia unveils plans for a $15 million facility next to a $48 million USC arena. The three governments approve a 3 percent hotel room tax.
1998: Columbia, Richland County discuss extending life of Vista property tax district to raise more money.
1999: Columbia buys 3 blocks in Vista from SMI Owen Steel for $8.4 million. Richland balks, then agrees to use $25 million from tax district for riverfront park, childrens museum and land for an arena and convention center.
2001: Richland 1 OKs tax deal.
2002: Contractor M.B. Kahn breaks ground on convention center. Columbia votes for public financing of a Hilton developed by local firms, including Garfield Traub Development, Gary Realty and Stevens & Wilkinson architects.
2003: USC unveils new arena.
2004: Columbia agrees to use $69.9 million in city money for a $71.4 million hotel. Loud taxpayer opposition pushes city to call for private proposals; it chooses Greenvilles Windsor/Aughtry Co., with a $3 million city subsidy. The 142,500 square foot, $37.4 million convention center opens Sept. 21. Gary Realty bills city for $4.3 million on behalf of original hotel developers.
2005: Gary Realty, Garfield Traub sue city for $2.1 million; Stevens & Wilkinson, for $1.3 million. City gives Windsor/Aughtry $1.5 million to make Hilton Garden Inn full-service, $1.5 million for rising construction costs. Firm breaks ground.
2007: April brings news that a Ruths Chris Steak House will locate in hotel; both set to open in August.
HILTON TIDBITS
Columbia’s new Hilton is more than a hotel. It’s the culmination of decades of legal wrangling and political posturing. It also holds the possibility of taking hospitality in downtown Columbia to a new level. Some loose ends and curiosities:
Top hotel?
Every travel company has its own “star” rating for hotels, and the standards vary widely. But the venerable AAA travel service’s “Diamond” rating system is consistent throughout the country.
The Hilton could be Columbia’s first AAA “Four Diamond” property. But it first has to ask the company for the designation, then pass the audition.
“Less than 5 percent of all properties inspected receive the Four Diamond award,” said Dave Zunker, chief salesman for the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism.
The hotel’s amenities — valet service, extended-hours room service, high-end decor and first-rate business and fitness centers — would qualify it, Zunker said.
But the property has to pass the “tough as nails” anonymous visits, AAA spokeswoman Jayne Cannon said. “It has to wow you every time.”
Does the front desk answer the phone after no more than three rings? We’ll see.
Carolinas’ best
There are only two AAA Five Diamond hotels in the Carolinas: The Woodlands Resort and Inn in Summerville and The Fearrington House in Pittsboro, N.C.
Charleston has the most Four Diamond hotels, with eight. There are five in Charlotte and four each in Hilton Head Island and Asheville.
Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Pinehurst and Wilmington have two each. Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Kiawah Island, Isle of Palms, Conway, Boone, Beaufort and other spots have one each. Raleigh and Columbia have none.
(For a listing, see aaacarolinas.com/travel/diamond/hotel/index.htm.)
Repairing the cracks
With the new hotel set to open, workers are hurrying to finish repairs to the foundation and sidewalks around the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
Holes and pits caused by settling and erosion last year are being filled with material much like the expanding, aerosol foam homeowners use to fill holes and cracks, convention center manager Mack Stone said.
Some areas are being dug up and re-compacted. New sidewalks will be poured.
Contractor MB Kahn and architects TVS & Associates of Atlanta and Stevens & Wilkinson of Columbia are footing the bill. The cost is undisclosed.
The restaurant that wouldn’t go away
Although Ruth’s Chris Steak House is opening next door, Damon’s Grill — at Lincoln and Senate streets since 1996 (it was the Red Pepper Seafood House before that) — will remain in business.
The city of Columbia four years ago tried to seize the property to build a parking garage and convention center hotel.
In the face of a sharp legal battle, the city bought the property for $3.8 million from owner Charlton Hall, used the back portion for the garage and agreed to honor Damon’s 30-year lease.
Conventions coming
The new hotel was essential to Columbia’s landing the 20th annual meeting of the National Hydrogen Association in 2009.
The association, which has booked 200 rooms, is the city’s first national convention.
“We had to give them updates on the hotel’s status,” Mayor Bob Coble said. “Having a hotel was mandatory.”
Forty-five groups have booked at the Hilton through 2009, said sales director Holly Boozer. Eleven also booked convention center space, including American Sports Medicine’s Injuries in Baseball Conference, the S.C. Forestry Commission and the S.C. Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel.
No big-name politicians or entertainers are on tap as yet. But Boozer has her fingers crossed.
— Jeff Wilkinson, Gina Smith
By GINA SMITH - gnsmith@thestate.com
http://media.thestate.com/smedia/2007/08/04/19/61-Hotel01.standalone.prod_affiliate.74.jpg
The new Hilton hotel in downtown Columbia is getting finishing touches as its Friday
opening nears.
Midlands leaders are pumped that the “missing link” to the 2½-year-old regional convention center will open across the street Friday.
The long-awaited, $32 million Hilton hotel at Park and Senate streets will give visitors a place to lay their collective heads after a long day of meetings at the convention center.
Since the convention center opened in September 2004, the lack of an affiliated hotel has meant more one-day, local events — weddings and family reunions — than planners had hoped for.
Now, the privately owned Hilton should put the convention center over the top, say those involved, attracting regional and national groups and pumping millions into the economy.
Columbia should be especially attractive to larger groups that want to book hundreds of rooms within walking distance of meeting rooms, months, even years, in advance, tourism officials say.
“It opens up a new market for us, groups we couldn’t go after before,” said Ric Luber, president of the authority that oversees the convention center.
Look for groups interested in the riverfront and USC’s research campus, both blocks away, to book the convention center. Large religious and political conventions also could continue to be a draw.
But competition for those groups is fierce. Dozens of nearby cities — including Charlotte, Raleigh and Knoxville — have built their own convention complexes.
The bandwagon began six or seven years ago, market analysts say, when cities realized they could both grab new tourist dollars and spawn businesses with a convention center/hotel combo.
Including accommodations, those attending Columbia events, for example, spend $175 a day, said Dave Zunker, vice president for Columbia’s visitors bureau. The money is seen as painless, creating no drag on local services such as schools.
“That advice (to build convention centers and hotels) was good,” said Rick Swig, president of San Francisco-based hotel advisers RSBA & Associates. “But it may have been given to too many towns all at the same time.”
If Columbia’s complex is to thrive, its niche must be unique, market experts say. Officials say they’re off to a good start, booking about 700 events a year when they had hoped for 500. That’s two a day, or 350,000 visitors. All without a hotel.
According to Mack Stone, the facility’s general manager, the center’s niche focuses on:
• Being centrally located. Columbia has the state’s only downtown convention facility, and it is within walking distance of 45 bars and restaurants. Nearby are loads of attractions such as museums and Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden.
• An old-fashioned friendliness that embraces a 21st-century economy. Tourism officials are selling a new Southern city brimming with hospitality but also home to an emerging knowledge-based economy, as evidenced by USC’s research campus. USC is the center’s biggest client. The National Hydrogen Association will meet at the center in 2009, a tip to the state’s role in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
• Being cost-effective. While its prices are comparable to those in other S.C. cities, Columbia doesn’t charge for setting up tables or providing wireless Internet access, Stone said. Plus, dining out, shopping and attractions are affordable.
Tourism officials have booked 11 groups through 2009 — including the hydrogen convention — with the Hilton’s opening in mind.
But many event planners won’t say “yes” until they can taste the food and swim in the pool. Officials are courting 38 meeting planners who visited the convention center earlier and indicated interest in booking once the Hilton opened.
National groups book three to five years in advance, so local events for now will continue to fill gaps on the calendar, Stone said.
Before going with a privately owned hotel, city officials in 2004 tried to publicly finance it.
“The idea of taxpayers funding a hotel is just bizarre and unconscionable,” said Kevin Fisher, a City Council critic who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year.
When the city gave in to public pressure and pursued a private hotel, three firms sued, claiming they were owed $3.4 million for work done before the switch. The consolidated suits may go to court in 2008, say the city’s legal staffers.
In the end, city taxpayers paid the Windsor/Aughtry Co., the hotel’s Greenville developer, $6 million in subsidies to build and operate the hotel.
“There’s been a lot of political blood spilt to get here,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. “But we’ve done it. The convention center and its hotel is the cornerstone of Columbia’s renaissance.”
COLUMBIAS NEW HILTON
By the numbers
$32 million: Cost of hotel
222: Number of rooms
14: Number of regular suites
2: Number of presidential suites
$169: Price per night for an av-erage room
$599: Introductory price per night for a presidential suite
200: Number of employees
8: Number of floors
THE GOOD STUFF
The Hiltons amenities
• Two presidential and 14 junior suites
• Pool and plaza
• Room service and lobby bar provided by Ruths Chris Steak House
• Fitness center with high-end Precor equipment
• First-class business center
In every room
• 32-inch, LCD flat-panel televisions with HD channels and 100-channel cable lineup
• Copies of local photographs, provided by USCs South Caroliniana Library
• Two phones, two lines, data port and free local calls
• Complimentary wired and wireless Internet
• Crabtree and Evelyn bath and spa products
• Lighted makeup mirror
• Pacific Coast brand down comforters and pillows and 250-count, triple-sheet linens
• Lavazza Italian coffee, Bigelow hot tea
A LONG ROAD
Early 1960s: Columbia acquires land for a conference center near USCs Carolina Coliseum.
1970s: Lexington County considers Guignard family land on the West Columbia side of the river.
1978: Columbia Mayor Kirkman Finlay unveils his Congaree Vista vision; a conference center is vital.
1986: Texas developer offers Lexington a Hilton. Columbia businessmen pay $10,000 for site study. Columbia Mayor T. Patton Adams broaches a joint venture with USC.
1987: Columbia calls for ideas. Businessman Temple Ligons proposal for The Bridge, a center spanning the river, gets attention.
1988-89: Money woes stall plans on both sides of river. Lexington developer declares that site dead, citing influential Columbians sabotage.
1994: Mike Carrier, Columbia visitors bureau executive director, suggests the city and counties unite, levy a 2 percent hotel room tax, backed by hotel owners.
1996: Consultant picks Vista as best site in $60,000 city study. Columbia unveils plans for a $15 million facility next to a $48 million USC arena. The three governments approve a 3 percent hotel room tax.
1998: Columbia, Richland County discuss extending life of Vista property tax district to raise more money.
1999: Columbia buys 3 blocks in Vista from SMI Owen Steel for $8.4 million. Richland balks, then agrees to use $25 million from tax district for riverfront park, childrens museum and land for an arena and convention center.
2001: Richland 1 OKs tax deal.
2002: Contractor M.B. Kahn breaks ground on convention center. Columbia votes for public financing of a Hilton developed by local firms, including Garfield Traub Development, Gary Realty and Stevens & Wilkinson architects.
2003: USC unveils new arena.
2004: Columbia agrees to use $69.9 million in city money for a $71.4 million hotel. Loud taxpayer opposition pushes city to call for private proposals; it chooses Greenvilles Windsor/Aughtry Co., with a $3 million city subsidy. The 142,500 square foot, $37.4 million convention center opens Sept. 21. Gary Realty bills city for $4.3 million on behalf of original hotel developers.
2005: Gary Realty, Garfield Traub sue city for $2.1 million; Stevens & Wilkinson, for $1.3 million. City gives Windsor/Aughtry $1.5 million to make Hilton Garden Inn full-service, $1.5 million for rising construction costs. Firm breaks ground.
2007: April brings news that a Ruths Chris Steak House will locate in hotel; both set to open in August.
HILTON TIDBITS
Columbia’s new Hilton is more than a hotel. It’s the culmination of decades of legal wrangling and political posturing. It also holds the possibility of taking hospitality in downtown Columbia to a new level. Some loose ends and curiosities:
Top hotel?
Every travel company has its own “star” rating for hotels, and the standards vary widely. But the venerable AAA travel service’s “Diamond” rating system is consistent throughout the country.
The Hilton could be Columbia’s first AAA “Four Diamond” property. But it first has to ask the company for the designation, then pass the audition.
“Less than 5 percent of all properties inspected receive the Four Diamond award,” said Dave Zunker, chief salesman for the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism.
The hotel’s amenities — valet service, extended-hours room service, high-end decor and first-rate business and fitness centers — would qualify it, Zunker said.
But the property has to pass the “tough as nails” anonymous visits, AAA spokeswoman Jayne Cannon said. “It has to wow you every time.”
Does the front desk answer the phone after no more than three rings? We’ll see.
Carolinas’ best
There are only two AAA Five Diamond hotels in the Carolinas: The Woodlands Resort and Inn in Summerville and The Fearrington House in Pittsboro, N.C.
Charleston has the most Four Diamond hotels, with eight. There are five in Charlotte and four each in Hilton Head Island and Asheville.
Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Pinehurst and Wilmington have two each. Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Kiawah Island, Isle of Palms, Conway, Boone, Beaufort and other spots have one each. Raleigh and Columbia have none.
(For a listing, see aaacarolinas.com/travel/diamond/hotel/index.htm.)
Repairing the cracks
With the new hotel set to open, workers are hurrying to finish repairs to the foundation and sidewalks around the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
Holes and pits caused by settling and erosion last year are being filled with material much like the expanding, aerosol foam homeowners use to fill holes and cracks, convention center manager Mack Stone said.
Some areas are being dug up and re-compacted. New sidewalks will be poured.
Contractor MB Kahn and architects TVS & Associates of Atlanta and Stevens & Wilkinson of Columbia are footing the bill. The cost is undisclosed.
The restaurant that wouldn’t go away
Although Ruth’s Chris Steak House is opening next door, Damon’s Grill — at Lincoln and Senate streets since 1996 (it was the Red Pepper Seafood House before that) — will remain in business.
The city of Columbia four years ago tried to seize the property to build a parking garage and convention center hotel.
In the face of a sharp legal battle, the city bought the property for $3.8 million from owner Charlton Hall, used the back portion for the garage and agreed to honor Damon’s 30-year lease.
Conventions coming
The new hotel was essential to Columbia’s landing the 20th annual meeting of the National Hydrogen Association in 2009.
The association, which has booked 200 rooms, is the city’s first national convention.
“We had to give them updates on the hotel’s status,” Mayor Bob Coble said. “Having a hotel was mandatory.”
Forty-five groups have booked at the Hilton through 2009, said sales director Holly Boozer. Eleven also booked convention center space, including American Sports Medicine’s Injuries in Baseball Conference, the S.C. Forestry Commission and the S.C. Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel.
No big-name politicians or entertainers are on tap as yet. But Boozer has her fingers crossed.
— Jeff Wilkinson, Gina Smith
