Fort Pontchartrain hotel owners revive plan for second tower

[Airforceguy]

Didn't expect to see this proposal get revived. I hope it happens this time.
Fort Pontchartrain hotel owners revive plan for second tower

A Mexican and European investor group called Operadora de Servicio Para Hoteles de Lujo that owns the hotel at 2 Washington Blvd. has issued a request for proposals in recent weeks for an economic feasibility study for a 390-room addition to the property that would also include 40 for-sale condominiums, according to a source who requested anonymity who has seen the RFP.Other details about the plan are not yet known. Messages were left with two hotel representatives on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The renewed effort comes as other developers seek to add to the downtown core's hotel stock as major events like the NFL Draft in 2024 and the NCAA men's basketball Final Four in 2027.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...n-second-tower

[EGrant]

Isn't this the second time the second tower has been proposed in five-ish years?

[401don]

They need to learn how to run the 1st one first.

[Richard]

They did not incorporate or file as a foreign company doing business in the state of Michigan until April of 2019.

So they have only owned it for 3 years,and would not have been in the 2015 - 2018 proposals?

But the 2015 Crains article mentions them but not the name of the company,Mexican investor Gabriel Ruiz Huerta,looks like he has regrouped with new investors and is revisiting the idea.

They incorporated in Delaware,a state that does not publicly disclose who the corporation officers are,in December of 2018.

Then filed right after that in April of 2019 to do business as a foreign company in Michigan.

The place was designed from the get go to have more units,the crains article mentions that it had been proposed many times in the past,looks like the current owner purchased it with one investor group and then formed another with another group,that possibly bought out the first group.

Otherwise they would have moved forward back in 2015 ,this new group may have deeper pockets or may not after the due diligence is completed.Which they would have already done back in 2015,so they already had an idea as to what it would cost and are now just updating the numbers.

just kinda thinking out loud .

It reminds me of the Netflix show of the Mexican tequila company that expanded into hotels,I am sure they will have good laundry facilities there.

On the subject of convention centers,the ones that do the best seem to be the ones built by the individual cities and not individual hotels as a whole.

[Danny]

Good luck with that plan.