Hotel next to convention center possible
A hotel could be moving in next to the Bastrop Convention and Exhibit Center on a lot where a farmers market has stood for nearly a decade.
The Bastrop City Council last week approved a $19,500 contract with DP Consulting to perform a feasibility study that will determine if the hotel is a good option for the city and its convention center.
The group will analyze market conditions to determine the demand for lodging downtown and how the hotel could work in tandem with the convention center.
It’s an idea that has been introduced to the council over the past year as officials tried to determine the best use for the city-owned property at 1302 Chestnut St., which has been leased to the 1832 Farmers Market for $1 a month since 2008.
Early last year, the city tried to kick out the farmers market and create its own. But officials walked back that idea and allowed the nonprofit farmers market group to stay. The Main Street Program also had plans to turn the property into an events space, but the proposal never picked up steam.
In January, the council voted to continue its lease with the 1832 market on a month-to-month basis.
Bastrop Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Shawn Kirkpatrick said he had been approached by a developer that wanted to put a hotel on the lot and requested a feasibility study.
Both he and Main Street Director Sarah O’Brien said it would be a good idea to know if a hotel would perform well in the downtown area, regardless of who develops it.
“I think this opportunity will be huge for the community,” Kirkpatrick said. “This is going to be the first hotel in downtown Bastrop and hopefully allow overnight guests for the convention center but also leisure travelers who want to be within walking and biking distance of Main Street.”
O’Brien and council members have said a hotel could help make up for a loss in operating expenses by the convention center, which takes in $1 million in hotel occupancy taxes every year to pay its maintenance and operations and debt service, according to city financial records.
A market analysis conducted in 2007 showed the convention center would need to bring in about $275,000 in revenue each year over a five-year period to be successful. In the past five years, it has accrued on average about half that — approximately $133,000 annually from rental revenue, catering services and sponsored events, records show.
Resident Herb Goldsmith questioned whether a hotel would be enough to make up that difference. He suggested the city drop the convention center and leave it for a hotel to control.
Kirkpatrick said the feasibility study would look into that option and determine whether it makes more sense to have a hotel cooperating with the convention center under the city’s control or a hotel leading convention center operations.
As for the future of the 1832 market, O’Brien said it will continue to exist but under new leadership.
“I am very hopeful we will be able to take that market in another direction,” O’Brien said. “And I am hopeful that council will allow us time to fully develop that concept and allow 1832 to use that site before they decide what to do.”