The Hilton brand will be building a long-awaited hotel on the grounds of the Lake Charles Event Center, along with an expansion of the event and convention center itself.
“Our city continues to miss out on major conventions because of the lack of a dedicated event center hotel,” Mayor Nic Hunter said Friday at a press conference. Currently, the city’s only venues with the capacity to host large-scale events are the Golden Nugget and L’Auberge casinos.
With the construction of the 154-room hotel, which will be operated under the Hilton Garden Inn brand, the city will have long-awaited lodging space to host what officials hope will be an expansion of convention business and help revitalize the downtown and lakefront areas after the devastation of hurricanes Laura and Delta.
The city is still down 1,000 hotel rooms as a result of the storms, according to Visit Lake Charles President and CEO Kyle Edmiston, which has hindered its recovery by preventing it from hosting regular large-scale conventions.
Edmiston referenced the Americas LNG & Gas Summit as an example of business the city has missed out on that it would be able to attract once again with the space provided by the new hotel and expanded convention center. The summit was held in Lake Charles in 2022, but didn’t return because the city couldn’t provide the necessary infrastructure, according to Edmiston.
Being able to host events such as the summit near downtown will help local businesses in the area as well, Edmiston noted, as attendees eat, drink and shop downtown. “That economic impact will be spread around,” Edmiston said.
Plans to build a hotel had been floated since at least 2010, when the city issued a request for proposals, but never came to fruition.
The city also announced plans to purchase the property just north of the event center, which formerly housed the Capital One Tower, and build an amphitheater with a capacity of 4,500 on that property.
These plans are part of a larger effort to revitalize and connect the downtown and lakefront areas after the devastation caused by weather disasters in 2020 and 2021. In addition to the hotel and amphitheater announced Friday, the construction of a lakefront entertainment district on the northside of the lake is also currently underway.
“Lakefront development is something we’ve been talking about for decades and I’m honored that our administration is making that a reality,” Hunter said. Both plans for a partnership between the hotel’s developers and the city, and plans to purchase the former Capital One Tower property will be going to the city council for approval at its next meeting on Dec. 18.
link