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  #1  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2007, 9:30 PM
matttwentyeight matttwentyeight is offline
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Could the Grand Hyatt Really be 36 Floors?

i highly doubt this information is correct (though i hope it is)... but according the "oh so reliable" express news, they are currently working on "floor 25 of the 36 floor hotel!"
Convention Center hotel is racing against the clock

Web Posted: 08/03/2007 11:42 PM CDT

Melissa S. Monroe
Express-News Business Writer
With just six months before guests start checking into the Grand Hyatt San Antonio, some involved in the project say the $285 million hotel is months behind schedule thanks to legal wrangling with subcontractors, rain and problems with underground utility lines.
Crews are working round-the-clock shifts trying to finish the 1,005-room Convention Center hotel by Feb. 6. At this point, teams are working on floor 25 of a 36-story hotel.

A late opening would mean large fines for the general contractor. And with rooms already booked for February and the NCAA Final Four men's basketball tournament at the Alamodome looming just weeks later, it could turn into a public relations problem for the city.

"I think it would be a black eye for the city if, in fact, the hotel is not opening," said Henry Feldman, chairman of the San Antonio Area Tourism Council. "FaulknerUSA should know whether they can make it and if they think it's doubtful, they have a obligation to tell the Hyatt and the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau and get in touch with clients right away."

Austin-based FaulknerUSA is the general contractor on the hotel and its spokesman said in no uncertain terms that the hotel will open on time.

"The night of Feb. 6th, our guests will be enjoying their room service, unprecedented downtown views from their luxurious rooms, swimming in the gorgeous pool and putting their heads down on their Grand Hyatt Convention Center hotel beds," said T.J. Connolly, FaulknerUSA's local spokesman.

More coverage
E-N video: Construction of the
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Hyatt

When asked to specify exactly what would be done by Feb. 6, Connolly said: "All 1,005 hotel rooms will be completed and fully furnished down to the ceramic tile, carpet and flat-screen TVs in the rooms."

He does offer one caveat — bad weather. He acknowledges if the city gets several more weeks of prolonged rain, it could throw the project off by about three weeks.

Hotel experts say it's not uncommon for hotels to open for guests with interior work still unfinished on some floors.


(William Luther/Express-News)
Crews are trying to make up for lost time on the 36-story Grand Hyatt San Antonio, which is booked to more than 70 percent occupancy in its opening month.
Connolly said only a "punch-list" of smaller items will be left to finish by Feb. 6.

Some subcontractors on the project aren't nearly as optimistic.

"I'd say the project is about six months-plus behind. When we started the structure it was already five months behind schedule," said Doug Karn, a district manager for United Forming of Atlanta.

United Forming is one of a few companies that already have left the project, which began in earnest in January 2006 after a June 2005 groundbreaking. United Forming is in arbitration with FaulknerUSA to recoup almost $5 million from FaulknerUSA for money owed and legal fees.

A drywall contractor, Lone Star Interiors Inc. of Austin, also is in arbitration with FaulknerUSA over back payments, said R. Glen Ayers, an attorney with Langley & Banack in San Antonio.

FaulknerUSA claims it has paid its bills and has sued two former executives of U.S. Structural Concrete Inc., claiming misappropriation of funds — money it says was meant to pay subcontractors. FaulknerUSA estimates that subcontractors of U.S. Structural Concrete are owed about $900,000.

Connolly acknowledged it has been a tough job for developer FaulknerUSA, which he said has never been late on a project.

The developer experienced about 90 days of delays when it discovered 132 underground utility lines it didn't know about before the job, he said.

The 190 days of rain and ice since construction began hasn't helped, he added. And commercial construction costs have risen more than 30 percent because of the war in Iraq, high demand for steel and escalating labor costs. Connolly estimates FaulknerUSA already has tallied $50 million in unexpected costs on the project.

Subcontractors leaving the hotel project also are hurting its progress, builders say.

Leland Rocchio, a business development manager for Lyda Swinerton Builders in San Antonio, a general contractor that has built several downtown hotels here, said while he's not specifically talking about the Hyatt project, it's not easy for a new subcontractor to come on a job and start work without facing a learning curve and mobilizing of workers.

"Subcontractors are the key to getting the work done," Rocchio said. "They are the ones getting it built, and your relationship with subcontractors is critical to completing projects on time."

If the hotel isn't finished on time, FaulknerUSA faces fines of $70,000 a day from the city. By the city's definition, not opening on time would mean many of the hotel's rooms and beverage areas aren't completed by the Feb. 6 deadline.

Still, FaulknerUSA said it's making good progress. FaulknerUSA project manager Josh Leen said in the last few weeks, architectural precast walls on the outer building have been going up and bathroom tile has been laid to floor seven.

Many of the hotel rooms are completed, minus carpeting and wall coverings, he said, noting that work on the 26th floor will start today.

Floors 25 through 34 will be condos, and those floors also should be completed by early February, Leen said. The top two floors will be used for mechanical equipment and storage.

Connolly said the 147 condos in the building will need finishing out according to buyer specifications, and that work could go on for several months after the hotel's opening.

Scott Lane, the Grand Hyatt's director of sales and marketing, said the hotel is booked to more than 70 percent occupancy in its opening month, and it's booking rooms under the assumption the hotel will open on time.

By the end of the year, the hotel could reach more than 1 million room nights booked from 2008 through 2013, he said.

Michael J. Sawaya, the city's director of convention, sports and entertainment facilities, said the city remains confident the project will come in on time. But he added that the Hyatt and the developer will develop plans to avoid any negative impact if there is a late opening.

The project is being partly financed with $208 million in taxable and tax-exempt bonds, with the remainder being financed through Hotel Investments LP, which includes FaulknerUSA and Marathon Real Estate. Hyatt also is an equity investor.

Revenue from the hotel would pay off the bond debt — unless it's inadequate to make the payments to bondholders. In that case, the developer would turn to state sales tax and occupancy tax revenue, then local hotel taxes.
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  #2  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2007, 9:46 PM
matttwentyeight matttwentyeight is offline
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i just read the article (lol) and the grand hyatt is 36 floors.... top two are mechanics and storage.... turns out 34 isn't tops after all!
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  #3  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2007, 9:52 PM
matttwentyeight matttwentyeight is offline
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2007, 10:10 PM
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KevinFromTexas KevinFromTexas is offline
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Officially listed, though the building will still only be 34 floors. That is 34 occupied floors. The Sears Tower in Chicago has 108 occupied floors, and two more mechanical levels above the roof. Some sources list that building as 110 floors, even though it's not customary to count mechanical levels atop the building's mainroof. The Frost Bank Tower in Austin has two mechanical floors above the roof hidden inside the crown, but I'd never say that it has 35 floors. There are other buildings in Austin and San Antonio also that have mechanical levels that aren't being counted, some that I don't even know about, so counting the floors in the Hyatt, and not in the others, wouldn't be consistent.
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2007, 11:07 PM
Chicago3rd Chicago3rd is offline
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"Unprecedented views" Why are the views from the Grand Hyatt unprecedented?
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  #6  
Old Posted Aug 5, 2007, 6:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago3rd View Post
"Unprecedented views" Why are the views from the Grand Hyatt unprecedented?
All the other hotels in the area there face east/west...this one faces south/north. Unprecedented isn't really the right word though.
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  #7  
Old Posted Aug 5, 2007, 9:39 PM
adtobias adtobias is offline
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well things downtown should go higher
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  #8  
Old Posted Aug 5, 2007, 10:59 PM
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If only...
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  #9  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 2:29 PM
westernmost westernmost is offline
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how many extra floors are there at the rivercenter, is it 38 + 2?

and anytime I've counted the floors of the tower life building I've never counted as many as 30, has that number always counted the top floors of that place I'd be scared to go up to...I picture it being like an impossibly musty attic with a bat problems

someone should finally surpass the 40 floor mark out there though
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  #10  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 8:44 PM
adtobias adtobias is offline
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like 50 floors or so
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  #11  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2007, 1:57 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by westernmost View Post
how many extra floors are there at the rivercenter, is it 38 + 2?

and anytime I've counted the floors of the tower life building I've never counted as many as 30, has that number always counted the top floors of that place I'd be scared to go up to...I picture it being like an impossibly musty attic with a bat problem.
The Marriott Rivercenter has 38 occupied floors. I've always heard 30 floors for the Tower Life Building, and never bothered to count them. How many did you count, westernmost?
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