Official: New building to cost less than to repair Plaza Hotel
Rain leaking into the building and a pipe bursting from February’s cold weather have combined to further erase any idea that the old Plaza Hotel could be renovated and brought back to life, a Pine Bluff official said Monday, adding that constructing a new hotel would also be much less expensive.
Joseph McCorvey, executive director of the Pine Bluff Convention Center, lamented on the dire conditions of the hotel, noting that recent rains had poured into the hotel from a damaged roof and that a water pipe that burst during the bitter cold weather in mid-February had caused additional damage to the closed hotel.
“The facade wall on the front of the hotel came off,” McCorvey said. “It rained inside the hotel, the Sheetrock got soggy, and the front of the wall fell to the ground outside.”
The old Plaza Hotel, which is connected to the convention center, has gone through several owners since it was built in the mid-1980s, but through neglect, its condition deteriorated until it was closed. The building is now owned by the city.
There is hope for what is being called the Convention Center Hotel, however, as the Pine Bluff City Council has voted to allow Mayor Shirley Washington to enter into a developmental contract with the P3 Group, under the direction of CEO Dee Brown, who said in a letter to the stakeholders that the development company always strives to exceed the expectations of all stakeholders.
“Our goal is to win the trust and build confidence in our commitment to this principle, one project at a time,” said Brown, whose group is currently the developers for three county buildings under construction.
The P3 Group met with city stakeholders via Zoom for the group’s initial meeting last week.
McCorvey, who attended the meeting, said officials were presented with plans and proposals as the first step of the initial meeting, which he called positive.
“I’m happy that there is progress because this convention center needs a new hotel,” said McCorvey, who has been with the
Pine Bluff Convention Center for three years. “I’m excited about it. We are having difficulty booking business in here because of the lack of having a hotel.”
According to the request for proposal for a public-private partnership concerning the Convention Center Hotel from the P3 Group, if the council votes to proceed, the group would facilitate the lease and lease-back of the existing property and the redevelopment of it into a full-service hotel in Pine Bluff through a lease-purchase agreement between the city and/or affiliated entities.
Estimates provided by P3 Group showed that the cost to renovate the hotel would be about $24.4 million compared to about $14.5 million to raze the old hotel and build a new one.
Renovations for the hotel would include the creation of 199 units and take 18 months, while a new hotel would have 125 units take a year to complete.
“The building is so far gone,” said McCorvey, who has been saying as much for several months.
“It has been in a state of disrepair for over 20 years. It’s cheaper to build a new build.”
McCorvey also has been an advocate for building a quality hotel that would attract a top franchise such as a Hilton or Marriott. McCorvey, who used to work for the Marriott International, said he knows exactly what it is going to take for that to happen.
“They’re not going to put their flag on a renovated hotel with a lobby pool. It’s just not going to happen,” said McCorvey. “I know there is a lot of people that remember those days, but any hotel that you go to now, you don’t see a pool in the lobby and the Hilton Brand — they have standards. They will not go for that.”
McCorvey said he feels that creating a hotel with a generic or unrecognizable brand will not draw the business that a Hilton or Marriott will attract.
“Meeting planners will not deal with that, but they know if it’s a Hilton, they already know what to expect, the consistency and its standards,” he said. “That’s going to help us get business in the door from day one.”
McCorvey also noted that many companies receive “meeting points” when they use Hilton or Marriott brands, which is an aspect that helps the hotel book events.
An “executive-level hotel” with amenities is what McCorvey has in mind, and he said such a hotel would complement its neighboring building, the Pine Bluff Convention Center, which is in the middle of upgrades.
“We started the renovations, but because of the pandemic, progress has been slow,” McCorvey said. “We are waiting on some fixtures so we can upgrade the restrooms with hands-free sinks and paper towels. The fixtures in the building are over 40 years old.”
According to McCorvey, it is going to take an estimated $3.5 million to do what is needed to modernize the convention center and have it match the hotel.
The center has a $2.5 million roof, and officials have invested several thousand dollars in the basketball arena to make the facility ready to host basketball tournaments and other events, but without a hotel next door, attracting convention-type business is difficult, McCorvey said.
Other upgrades are also needed for the convention center, he said.
Painting has already begun in the auditorium with convention staff doing the work themselves. But there is only so much that the staff can do, McCorvey said.
“We need to upgrade the technology in the auditorium to have a show. We also have outside issues like cracked concrete,” said McCorvey, who added that building a brand-new convention center would cost $80 million. “If you can’t get the money to build a new one, then you got to fix up what you have.”
If City Council gives the green light to proceed, a new hotel could be up by March 2023, and McCorvey said he hopes the convention center’s own upgrades will be ready by then, adding that he’s looking forward to the next P3 Group stakeholder meeting where more concrete details will be provided.
“I’m happy that there is progress,” McCorvey said. “People want the hotel open, just not that one. We hope that the progress will continue.”