New Hotel Tower Gives Memphis True HQ Hotel

MEMPHIS, TN-The Memphis Downtown Marriott will become a true convention headquarters hotel next month when it opens a new 200-room hotel tower. The hotel is connected to the Memphis Cook Convention Center, and the $14-million expansion gives the hotel 600 rooms, which means it can guarantee at least 500 rooms for conventions, a threshold number that gets the attention of meeting and event planners.The hotel expansion was timed to a $95-million expansion of the convention center, which included a new 35,000-sf South Hall and the 2,100-seat Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. As a result, the center and the hotel can now accommodate 90% of major meetings held in the US. Hotel GM Doug Edwards tells GlobeSt.com that the hotel, which also provides all the food and beverage service to the convention center, initially will be a dip in average daily occupancy this year and next as the hotel absorbs the new space, but that advance bookings start to ramp up in 2005 and “the future looks very good.” Part of the issue, says Edwards, is that meeting planners in the convention business book hotels several years out, and with delays in the convention center expansion and the hotel tower related to Sept. 11, 2001 and the economy, they were reticent to commit their events to a location until they could be positive the facilities would be ready. As a result, when marketing the hotel and convention center, Edwards says the planners usually just said “call me when its done.”With the convention center completed a year ago and the hotel tower set for a soft opening in May, Edwards says in the last three weeks deals have been firmed up for major conventions in 2009, 2011 and 2012. The first convention to christen the new hotel tower will be this June, when the Baptist convention comes to town.The hotel overlooks the Mississippi River and is a trolley ride away from AutoZone Ball Park, Fed-Ex Forum, Rock and Soul Museum, and Elvis’ Graceland. The grand opening for the new tower is scheduled for June 3, 2004.