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HOUSTON, Texas, December 3, 2003 – Today marked the long-awaited unveiling of side-by-side facilities that city of Houston officials believe will make Houston even more attractive to national and international meeting planners.

The Hilton Americas-Houston hotel, which opens for business on Thursday, and the adjacent George R. Brown Convention Center, which almost doubled its exhibit space as the result of completed expansion, will enable Houston to host events of a magnitude never before possible. The two downtown landmarks were shown to the public today in a celebration attended by nearly 1,000 city business leaders and meeting industry professionals.

“We’ve put the pieces in place and now Houston is open for convention business previously beyond our scope,” Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown said at today’s ceremonies. “We already have 10 brand-new conventions on the books for 2004 alone. The new Hilton Americas and the expanded George R. Brown Convention Center – in concert with the explosive growth in downtown hotel rooms – positions Houston very favorably in the meeting industry.”

The convenience of a major hotel, now the city’s largest, adjacent to the convention center advances Houston into the ranks of the nation’s top-tier convention cities. The Hilton Americas contains 1,200 guest rooms and is connected to the George R. Brown on two levels by a pedestrian skybridge. Houston is the only city in Texas that links its convention center and with its headquarters hotel in such a manner.

The hotel’s grand ballroom is the city’s largest, at 40,000 square feet, and can be divided into as many as 12 rooms. The junior ballroom itself is 26,000 square feet. Three restaurants, a full-service pool, spa, and health club are also on site. State-of-the-art technology features are found throughout the hotel, from the ballrooms to guest rooms, wired with 22 miles of conduit. The new hotel creates 1,000 jobs for Houston.

“The Hilton Americas-Houston hotel has been designed and built by a blue ribbon private sector team, headed by Hines Interests, as developers,” said Bob Lanier, former Houston mayor and now chairman of the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation. “The Hilton Hotels Corporation, the world's largest convention hotel operator, will operate the hotel. The city owns it. The integrated hotel, convention center and garage are getting ‘Wow!’ comments from meeting planners.”

The completed George R. Brown Convention Center encompasses 1.85 million gross square feet (up from 1.15 million), ranking the facility among the 10 largest convention centers in the country. It will have nearly 1.2 million net square feet of exhibition, meeting and registration space.

The facility’s exhibit space has almost doubled to 853,000 square feet. Three new exhibition halls were added for a total of seven. There are 105 breakout meeting rooms, an increase from 41. Registration space increased from 53,000 to 99,000 square feet.
“The expansion and added conveniences make the facility attractive to convention and meeting planners who must satisfy demands of increasingly large and technically complex events,” said Dawn Ullrich, director of the George R. Brown Convention Center.
The convention center and hotel are situated ideally for easy access to downtown businesses, the new Toyota Center, Minute Maid Park, the Theater District, and all the other attractions downtown and the surrounding area have to offer.

Jordy Tollett, president of the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, also cited the increased hotel capacity in the central business district as an important factor in increasing Houston’s national profile.
“We’ve grown from less than 2,000 hotel rooms downtown to nearly 6,000 in just a few years,” Tollett said. “This is a critical component in attracting future convention business.”
Eric Hilton, former vice chairman of Hilton Hotels Corporation and now director of Park Place Entertainment, a gaming company created by the hotel in 1998, was among today’s keynote speakers.

“Known internationally as an exciting destination, Houston now offers the Hilton Americas-Houston as a gateway to the city for visitors and local residents alike,” said David Villarrubia, hotel general manager.

Contact:

Pete Radowick
713-853-8077
peter.radowick@cityofhouston.net