Developer Selected for $175M Convention Hotel

SAN JUAN, PR-The government of Puerto Rico has tapped Garfield Traub Development of Texas and the locally based Interlink Group to develop a 500-room Headquarters Hotel here on government-owned land. The project is part of a $1.3-billion endeavor that will include a convention center, commercial spaces and residential units that government officials suggest will bring approximately $300 million annually to the Puerto Rican economy.

Construction of the $175-million hotel is set begin in the final trimester of 2004 and be complete in 2007. The hotel is being designed by RTKL and will fly a Sheraton flag. UBS Financial Services will carry the financing for the project.

Conceived as an “urban resort,” the hotel is at the heart of a vast new development district around the Puerto Rico Convention Center, which opens at the end of 2004. According to RTKL designer Jason Cruce, the hotel anchors a mixed-use, urban street setting that will eventually include office and residential units, a House of Blues restaurant and a Caribe cinema.