The Omni Dallas Convention Center Hotel
What if your city could develop a hotel like the Omni Dallas Hotel at no cost to the taxpayers and help transform your city into a place where investors, developers and new businesses come to create new jobs, new revenue streams and a variety of new and improved amenities that ultimately equate to financial security for the city and for those who live in it? It so happens that cities everywhere are doing this successfully and doing so with the construction of large developments such as Hotel and Conference Centers, Performing Arts Centers and other large mixed-use developments that attract tourists and visitors from other cities and promote growth and tourism.
As a very current example, the Omni Dallas Hotel, owned purely by the city of Dallas, reports that it is thriving to the degree that hotel officials project that it will bring in enough net revenue to meet its first-year debt obligations and thereby saving Dallas taxpayers from contributing to the mortgage payment. And if that is not enough, financial projections also show that taxpayers may not have to contribute in years to come.
The Omni Dallas hotel was built with $477 million in city-backed bonds and with the current performance, the Omni Dallas Hotel Manager Ed Netzhammer sates that he is confident that every penny of the city’s financing will be accounted for by the hotel’s revenue, indicating an excellent outlook for Dallas taxpayers.
According to the 2012 forecast displayed in The Dallas Morning News, the following was reported for the Omni Dallas Hotel.
The Omni Dallas Hotel 2012 Financial Forecast
| 2011 | 2012 | |
| Occupancy Rate | 58.5% | 57% |
| Daily Room Rate | $121.97 | $169.34 |
| Revenue Per Room | $71.39 | $96.52 |
The above numbers are steadily rising and the Omni Dallas Hotel officials noted that in January, paid occupancy was a remarkable 65 percent, or 11 percentage points above projections. These 2012 numbers put the Omni Dallas Hotel on the same level as their biggest competitor the Hilton Anatole. The combination of November – January numbers alone exceeded projections by 34%.
The most important information from the reports comes from the fact that in 2012, the Omni Dallas hotel expects to get 70 percent of sales from groups and conventions alone. “The inclusion of Convention Centers is crucial for hotels,” says Steve Moffett President of the Hospitality Division of Dallas-based development company Garfield Traub Development. “The numbers show that convention centers enhance the performance of their headquarters hotels allowing them to meet and often exceed expectations.”
In the The Dallas Morning News article titled, “Omni’s 2012 sales expected to cover first-year debt payment,” the Omni Dallas Hotel manager Mr. Netzhammer expects his hotel to be the headquarters hotel or co-headquarters hotel in 16 citywide conventions. The 16 conventions are expected to fill up most downtown hotels meaning not only great news for the Omni Dallas Hotel, but also for hotels, restaurants, departments stores and other various businesses located in close proximity to the convention center.
Another great example of this type of success is not of a hotel, but a Performing Arts Center. The Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) in downtown Durham, NC, had its skeptics before it was built, but now the development is very successful generating revenue to not only operate profitability, but enhance the numerous businesses surrounding it in downtown Durham. In addition, it now ranks in the top 10 in attendance of Broadway style theaters nationally, and has gone above and beyond its original estimated revenue numbers. When the DPAC first opened, the success created new demand for restaurants, hotels and shops surrounding it.
To discuss how your city can achieve similar success like the Omni Dallas hotel and the Durham Performing Arts Center by building facilities which create new economic development for the community, contact Garfield Traub Development.
