Marriott in Walking Distance to Area’s HQs

SPRING, TX—CityPlace Marriott at Springwoods Village is now open and accepting reservations for rooms, special events and dining. The 10-story property is the first full-service hotel in Springwoods Village, and the third hotel in the North Houston master-planned community, in addition to Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn by Marriott.

Woodbine Development Corporation is the developer and the asset manager, and Aimbridge Hospitality serves as the management company for the hotel. Gensler is the architect and interior designer, and Austin Commercial is the general contractor.

“Houston CityPlace Marriott is our third Marriott project inside Springwoods Village, but it’s the first full-service destination for the community, which means this upscale hotel serves to diversify and enhance the area’s hospitality offerings,” said King Scovell, managing partner and chief development officer at Woodbine.

Facing the CityPlace Park and lake system, Houston CityPlace Marriott is located at 1200 Lake Plaza Dr. next to CityPlace Plaza at the eastern end of CityPlace, a 60-acre mixed-use district in Springwoods Village. It is within walking distance of the community’s largest employers, ExxonMobil and Southwestern Energy, as well as the almost completed ABS headquarters and HP Inc. campus.

“With ExxonMobil campus, Southwestern Energy’s headquarters, CHI St. Luke’s hospital and soon-to-be completed ABS headquarters and HP Inc. campus, Springwoods Village has become a major employment center in north Houston, stimulating a new hotel submarket in the area,” said Warren Wilson, executive vice president of CDC Houston. “Houston CityPlace Marriott at Springwoods Village is the third hotel in our community, reflecting our strategy of providing a range of hotels at different price points and with different levels of service, all within walking distance to work, dining, retail and recreation. The hotel opening, paired with the completion of ABS headquarters and HP Inc. campus in the coming weeks, provides an exciting continued momentum for the entire community.”

Blending industrial and nature elements, hotel interiors feature a mix of stone, tile, wood, metal and textured fabrics. Nods to the railway traditions of the area and the nature of the region are woven throughout, from custom artwork to carpeting and lighting, train engine-inspired lanterns in the great room, intertwining railway tracks pattern above the front desk and main lobby elevators, and tooled-leather furniture and decor elements. All main light fixtures and 90% of the furniture has been custom designed and made for the hotel.

The hotel’s guest rooms have tooled-leather headboards, lounge furniture and a flexible table/work station setup. The 337 guest rooms include one presidential suite, two executive suites, 12 junior suites, 192 king rooms and 130 queen rooms.

The exclusive M Club rooms are on high-level floors and offer lake views, and access to the MClub Lounge on the lobby level. Standard rooms are equipped with 55-inch flatscreens, while the suites feature 65-inch flatscreens. All screens are outfitted with Google Chrome for guests who want to personalize the viewing experience using their own apps. Each guest room also features a Keurig coffeemaker, mini-fridge and an in-room safe, along with bathrooms including sliding barn doors.

Public spaces reflect the needs of today’s travelers—providing a mix of inviting configurations and seating options for those looking to connect online or with humans. The hotel also features more than 30,000 square feet of flexible indoor/outdoor function space, including a 10,000-square-foot grand ballroom, a 4,000-square-foot junior ballroom, four additional meeting rooms, three boardrooms, a pool bar event space and access to CityPlace Plaza, an expansive outdoor event area. In addition, AV equipment and support are available on-site. In addition to the lounge and Grab N Go market, the hotel also includes a three-meal-a-day restaurant and bar, SwitcHouse–Plates and Pours, the only full-service restaurant in the CityPlace area.

“The hotel and what it has to offer in terms of its location, dining, banquet capabilities and event spaces is going to make a huge impact in the North Houston area,” Kelli Harvey, director of sales and marketing for the hotel, tells GlobeSt.com. “The feedback from everyone that has toured our property so far has been terrific.”

The hotel is pursuing LEED Gold certification in alignment with Springwoods Village’s commitment to sustainable development and conservation. Guests have access to 290 acres of parks and natural corridors that connect to a network of trails. This includes the nearby 150-acre Springwoods Village nature preserve with a forest habitat, wetlands and pond, which will eventually become part of the greater 46-mile Spring Creek Greenway.

Springwoods Village is a $10 billion 2,000-acre sustainable master-planned community coming to life in Spring, just south of the Woodlands and 20 miles north of downtown Houston. Located at the confluence of Interstate 45, the Hardy Toll Road and the Grand Parkway, the community is a new model of sustainability and greener living for the Houston region, preserving its natural ecosystems, building energy smart homes, and reducing dependence on the car by providing a walkable mix of retail, dining, offices and public amenities. CityPlace, which will offer 4.4 million square feet of office and retail space within Springwoods Village, is being developed by a master development venture comprising Patrinely Group, USAA Real Estate Company and CDC Houston.

After robust growth early in the decade, Houston entered a period of decline, as the oil and gas industry was faced with challenges related to oversupply, which particularly affected submarkets with high exposure to energy-related corporate demand. This trend would likely have continued in 2017 had it not been for the impact of two one-time events. Until Hurricane Harvey made landfall at the end of August, RevPAR had declined each month, except for February because of Super Bowl LI, according to HVS. Occupancy and average rate/ADR increased substantially in the last four months of 2017, given the increased demand levels from displaced residents, insurance adjusters and other FEMA-related sources. As a result, occupancy improved to the mid-to-high 60s and ADR increased roughly $3 in 2017. The near-term outlook is relatively positive, as stronger economic growth and relative stability in the energy sector should help somewhat offset the comparisons to non-repeating events in 2017.

Approximately 3,000 hotel rooms opened in the market in 2015, 5,400 rooms opened in 2016 and 2,400 rooms opened in 2017. As of early 2018, another 700 rooms had already opened and another 2,200 rooms were under construction, with planned openings in 2018 and 2019, with downtown Houston submarket having the strongest increase. The greater hotel market will likely notice the effects of this increase in supply during the next several years.

Transaction activity was relatively slow in 2015, 2016 and 2017. It is expected to remain low in 2018 due to the continued uncertainty in the energy sector and caution regarding recently inflated demand levels from Hurricane Harvey. There have been approximately 35 hotels sold since January 2017, including the DoubleTree by Hilton Greenway Plaza ($60 million or $155,000 per room) and the Staybridge Suites Houston Medical Center ($21.6 million or $180,000 per room), according to HVS. The city’s top submarkets for investors remain downtown, Galleria and Texas Medical Center.