Convention Center Hotel moving forward
There may not be a final rendering available but for the first time, the proposed site and height of the long-sought-after Convention Center Hotel has been announced. On Tuesday, state, county and local officials approved the final details for $75 million in tax incentives for developers, DDRM to build a 29-story hotel at the southeast corner of the Salt Palace Convention Center.
The southeast corner became the rumored site of the future hotel after tentative plans to build at the former Arrow Press site, at the southeast corner of the 100 South and West Temple intersection, fell through after the untimely passing of Vasilios Priskos, the late principal of InterNet Properties, the owners of the Arrow Press property. Priskos has been a partner in the project and hoped to build a 39-story, mixed-use hotel on his property.
Priskos’ vision would have produced the city’s tallest tower, at a proposed 480 feet. Priskos envisioned 850 to 1,200 hotel rooms, with ground-floor retail and a potential residential component.
DDRM will partner with Atlanta-based Portman Holdings to build the hotel that will be one of the city’s tallest when completed. The hotel will have over 700 rooms and a total of 62,000 square feet of meeting space.
In 2016 Salt Lake County officials selected DDRM, to develop the Convention Center Hotel after initiating a second round of Request for Proposals when negotiations between county officials and Dallas-based Omni Hotels fell apart. The county had originally selected Omni to develop the hotel but the hotelier requested an upfront payment of $30 million, in addition to the approved tax incentives leading county officials to end negotiations.
St. George-based, DDRM has an established portfolio of hotels in Utah including the St. Regis Deer Valley. The developers hope to start construction in fall 2019 with an anticipated 2022 completion.
The developers may earn up to 100 percent of the new incremental states sales tax over the life of the agreement in the form of a post-performance Economic Development Tax Increment Finance (EDTIF) tax credit rebate. Tuesday’s ruling means that the post-performance tax credit rebate may not to exceed $75,000,000 over 20 years.
