Columbus, county expected to OK Hilton expansion

Officials are nearing approval of a $210 million expansion of the Downtown Hilton hotel that would include a new tower on the east side of North High Street and nearly double the number of guest rooms.

The Columbus City Council and Franklin County commissioners are expected to sign off on the bonding agreement for the project in the next few weeks, leaving the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority to follow suit in February.

Authority members heard the details of the financing plan during a meeting Thursday.

The project has been in the works for months, with a ceremonial groundbreaking planned for August and construction to begin in earnest thereafter.

The expansion of the Hilton — with more than 460 new rooms, a rooftop lounge and a signature restaurant — would abut the Greater Columbus Convention Center and open for business in early 2022.

The existing Hilton, which opened more than six years ago and has more than 530 rooms, would close for a couple of months for additional renovations, with updates to guest rooms and a revamped lobby area.

Initial estimates for the project were closer to $180 million, but rising construction costs driven by a tight central Ohio buildings trades market, higher costs for aluminum and steel because of tariffs and the addition of meeting room space increased the final cost, said Don Brown, the authority’s executive director.

Once completed, the hotel would have more than 76,000 square feet of meeting space, 54,100 of which would be new, according to documents.

The Convention Facilities Authority is proposing $238 million in financing to cover the expansion and other costs. The county and city would guarantee about $100 million of the new bonding, each taking on half that total.

The county provided a comparable guarantee on the funds borrowed when the Hilton initially was built, with bonding of about $160 million at the time.

Borrowed funds would be repaid through hotel revenue, with reserve funds to cover costs in the event of shortfalls.

Conservative projections have revenue more than covering the costs, Brown said.

“We might have to dip into our fund balances, our reserve balances, but we would never … call on the city and county guarantees,” he said. “And we would never completely exhaust our balances, either.”