Adaptive Reuse Effort Brings AC Hotel Back to Original Glam
The hotel has undergone a meticulous renovation to include the restoration of the marble and Granux exterior and the marble-clad lobby, along with the Zoe Ballroom being restored to its original 1914 design.
HOUSTON—The historic 10-story AC Hotel is the first AC in Houston and only the third in Texas. Its location at the corner of Rusk and Main connects guests to companies, entertainment and sport venues, such as Toyota Center and Minute Maid Park, the Theater District and the Discovery Green Park. It is also located at the intersection of two light rail lines, providing access to the Texas Medical Center, the Museum District and Reliant Center.
The 1914 building was originally commissioned by famed Houston entrepreneur, Jessie Jones, and designed by Alfred Finn as the headquarters of Gulf Oil. Since then, the building has been home to the National Bank of Commerce and most recently served as the Houston Bar Center. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
In an adaptive reuse project by NewcrestImage, the hotel has undergone a meticulous renovation including restoration of the marble and Granux exterior, and the marble-clad ground-floor lobby. The hotel’s customized interior design and furnishings reflect minimalistic European-style including guestrooms with floating furniture and public space featuring wood and stone finishes accented by chrome and millwork imported from Verona, Italy.
“We are very proud to debut the AC by Marriott in Houston with our unique property. The restoration was a labor of love and we hope that business and leisure travelers and Houstonians alike will embrace our property as a new downtown destination to stay and socialize,” said general manager Jon Craven. “From check-in to check out, we want to indulge our guests with all the amenities and services they’ve come to expect in an environment reflective of AC brand’s Spanish roots and Houston’s distinctive energy and laid-back vibe.”
The hotel offers 195 rooms on 10 floors including 90 king rooms, 33 European studio king rooms, 63 double-double rooms and nine double-double city view suites. Fully equipped rooms feature complimentary high-speed Internet, WiFi and charging ports.
AC Kitchen, AC Lounge and AC Store are part of the food and beverage offerings, while an 1,100-square-foot Starbucks cafe will open later this fall.
In addition, the 3,600-square-foot Zoe Ballroom has been restored to its original 1914 design, retaining its classic ceiling. The space was originally called the Zoe Theater, opening in 1914 for silent movies.
“The Zoe Theater is a wonderful example of a bygone day. The theater opened in 1914, in the rear of the Foster Building, which later became the Gulf Oil Building, when a new upstart oil company became a tenant,” William Franks, development consultant who worked on the hotel with NewcrestImage, tells GlobeSt.com. “The Zoe became one of the major theaters in the Gulf Coast. The theater had a beautiful barrel-vaulted ceiling, ornate features and a large single screen that featured the most popular silent moving pictures of the day as well as current news reels showing the latest World War I news from the European western front. It was quite the place in the Houston entertainment and social scene.”
Franks says the restoration’s painstaking detail harkens back to those days and the hotel has returned to its original grandeur.
“Although times have changed and the building and theater have all but been forgotten in the last 30 years, the theater has been restored back to its former beauty and will become the A C Hotel by Marriott–Houston’s much-awaited event ballroom thanks to NewcrestImage,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Because of its beauty and history, this unique space will take its place as an important gatherings and event location, just like it was in 1914.”
A strong Texas economy is projected to stabilize in 2019 and position the Houston hotel market for continued revenue per available room growth during the next few years, according to the latest forecast from CBRE Hotels Americas research. Houston hotels finished 2018 with a RevPAR loss of 7.4%, predominantly due to a large increase in demand from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Now with more traditional fundamentals, CBRE research predicts a 0.3% growth in RevPAR for 2019 and a 3% increase in 2020.