Mike Wampold spent months in late 2013 and early 2014 putting together the pieces to develop a new hotel in an old building in the heart of downtown. As Business Report details in its new cover story, Wampold acquired the historic LNB Building at 150 N. Third St. and lobbied state lawmakers to create a tax increment financing district. He also began negotiating for a franchise agreement with Marriott, one of the most prestigious hotel chains in the industry.
Unbeknownst to Wampold, however, another group of developers—Windsor Aughtry of South Carolina—also had plans for a downtown hotel and also had its eye on a Marriott franchise. They, too, wanted to build on Third Street, and their property was an empty lot just one block from Wampold’s building.
In the end, Windsor Aughtry got the franchise, most likely, say industry experts, because Marriott almost always prefers to fly its flag on newly constructed buildings. In early October, the developers announced plans to build a 147-room, eight-story Courtyard Marriott. It will break ground in 2015 and open a year later, becoming the sixth hotel in downtown Baton Rouge.
For Wampold, the outcome was a setback but only a temporary one. The developer is still moving forward with his hotel project and is currently in talks with an unnamed hotel chain. He hopes to have an announcement about a franchise agreement by the end of the year.
That two big developers would be developing competing hotel projects downtown would have been almost unheard of a few years ago. That they would be building them just a block away from each other at a time when downtown already has five hotels within a 2-mile radius seems almost crazy. But Baton Rouge is in the midst of a hotel boom, and downtown is ground zero.
The growth in the local hotel industry is not just confined to the city’s historic center, however. It’s occurring throughout the metro area. Since 2000, the number of hotels in East Baton Rouge Parish has more than doubled, while the number of hotels in the nine-parish Capital Region has increased 83%. Can the local market support so many new properties in the long term? Read the full cover story. Also, be sure to check out a sidebar story on mystery surrounding the iconic Marriott hotel off Interstate 10. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
