AUSTIN, TEXAS—Manchester Texas Financial Group LLC announced a proposal for a 1035-room hotel adjacent to the Austin Convention Center that will pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. The project includes two restaurants, retail, and 115,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. Manchester Financial Group LP of San Diego (the parent company), contributed the land for the San Diego Convention Center and built both the Manchester Grand Hyatt and The San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina consisting of approximately 3,000 rooms.
Douglas Manchester admires what he refers to as “Texas’ finest city” and believed in the potential of downtown development enough to expand his interests to Austin in November of 2010 and establish Manchester Texas Financial Group LLC. Manchester acknowledged, “We have looked carefully at many hotel sites in the Austin market and concluded this site is by far the very best with its immediate location adjacent to the Convention Center. With our many years of developing world-class hotels, we concluded our patrons would find it unpleasant during the summer heat and winter cold to walk several blocks to access important exhibits and meetings at the Convention Center. We have not finalized a decision as to an operator, but feel an expansion of the current Hilton or Hilton brand may be appropriate.”
Manchester, with his extensive experience in the hospitality industry and developing convention center properties, has partnered with the Gensler Austin office to bring forth the global design experience and expertise needed to successfully develop a world-class project. Gensler of Austin will soon release certain elements of the architectural design, and upon completion they anticipate this project being awarded the first LEED Gold hotel designation in Austin.
“Fundamental to the building design are the sustainable strategies which include the intentional building orientation, high performance exterior ‘building skin’ and shading devices to mitigate heat gain,” said Todd Runkle, managing director of Gensler Austin. “In addition, an integrated guestroom occupancy monitoring system will be implemented to improve the energy efficiency of the hotel. Water conservation strategies include rain water and grey water collection as well as working with the hotel operator to implement a waste diversion strategy.” Furthermore, Gensler plans to integrate the hotel’s landscape development to complement the Waller Creek redevelopment project, including positioning the restaurant and hotel lobby on the “front porch” of Waller Creek.
The development team also includes partners Robert Knight and Perry Lorenz. Knight and Lorenz affirmed, “Our development team strongly believes this new hotel project will be a catalyst to the Waller Creek redevelopment, and our collective resources will produce the ‘masterpiece’ within the redevelopment project for the City of Austin to enjoy for years to come.”
Go to Gensler.
