An upscale hotel with a Marriott Autograph Collection flag is a step closer to becoming a reality on a busy corner in downtown Austin, with White Lodging, in partnership with REI Real Estate, beginning the project that will add hundreds of hotel rooms to the state's capital city.
By month's end, Hotel Trinity, a 13-floor, 258-room luxury hotel is expected to get underway at the corner of Trinity and Fifth streets, replacing an aging retail bar and nightclub. The site being developed by the Indiana-based development firm is located near the Austin Convention Center, which is undergoing a $1.6 billion expansion and redevelopment project.
Hotel Trinity is expected to offer guests a private hideaway with a rooftop pool, fitness center and social club. The hotel will include about 6,000 square feet of meeting space and a ground-floor restaurant.
The Texas state capital city has seen an explosive growth of hotel development in the last three years, according to CoStar's market analytics team, with a number of upscale hotels being built in Austin's central business district.
"In recent years, there's been an increase in upper-tier hotel rooms, especially in the CBD, which has added to the market's composition for higher-end properties," said Colin Sherman, CoStar's market analytics director specializing in the Texas hotel market, in his latest market report. The Austin market has more than 1,800 rooms currently under construction.
This project is expected to add to White Lodging's existing portfolio in Austin, where it already has more than 4,000 guest rooms and 220,000 square feet of meeting space, the company said. The state capital city is an "essential part" of the firm's future growth, said White Lodging CEO Jean-Luc Barone.
"In addition to this significant investment in Hotel Trinity, we are reinvesting in our existing hotels and restaurants, including massive improvements at the Westin Austin Downtown and J.W. Marriott Austin Downtown," Barone added, in a statement.
Along with Austin, White Lodging has about 60 upscale hotels in markets including Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Tennessee, Indianapolis and Louisville, Kentucky. Hotel Trinity is expected to take about two years to complete. As CoStar News has previously reported, the project is expected to cost at least $92 million to build.
The city's convention center redevelopment is expected to get underway next year, with the venue closing for construction until it reopens anew in 2029.
For the record
PFVS is the architect on the project. DPR Construction is the general contractor. FlickMars Hospitality is the project's interior designer.