Mike Wampold has finalized a franchise agreement with Marriott to redevelop the old LNB Building downtown into a new 148-room Autograph hotel that will be called Watermark Baton Rouge. The developer has been working on plans for a hotel on the site for more than one year, but did not have a flag for the hotel until Monday, when the deal was signed.
The Autograph brand is one of the newest and ritziest in the Marriott family of hotels and Wampold says his hotel at 150 N. Third St will be “upper upscale,” with high-end amenities, restored vintage artwork and a full-service restaurant.
“This is going to be more upscale than the Renaissance,” says Wampold, referring to another Marriott hotel he owns on Bluebonnet Boulevard. “This is going to be the most upscale hotel in Baton Rouge.”
Wampold’s announcement comes on the same day developers of a Courtyard Marriott, which is planned for a vacant lot just down the block at Florida and North Third streets, are planning to ask the Metro Council to create a special Tax Increment Financing District to help finance construction of their project. Wampold secured TIF financing for his project from the Council earlier this spring.
With two competing Marriotts within a block of each other and seven hotels altogether, the downtown hotel market will be a competitive one, but Wampold says he’s ready to compete.
“We feel good about our position and the quality of our product,” he says.
The hotel is scheduled to open in August 2016. Read the full story in Daily Report PM this afternoon.
See a rendering of the Watermark.
—Stephanie Riegel
