Arlington Project Tops List for La Quinta's $120M Cap Ex Plan

"We are in the process of renewing and refreshing the entire chain," says Alan L. Tallis, EVP and chief development officer for the corporation and president of La Quinta Franchising LLC and Baymont Franchising LLC. The lion's share of this year's pool funds renovations and brand conversions, with the balance going toward more routine maintenance and admin costs. The showpiece for La Quinta's new look was unveiled in late January in Downtown San Antonio, a full-blown redevelopment of the chain's first hotel into a 14-story, 350-room facility at its 303 Blum St. address, which is within walking distance of the famed Riverwalk and Alamo.

"It's giving the La Quinta brand a new image in that market," Tallis says. "The look, the feel and the curb appeal is a very different experience."

Like the San Antonio property, the Arlington hotel at 4001 Scot's Legacy Dr. is "an enduring location," more specifically an irreplaceable address that needs an upgraded hotel with interior corridors, more than two stories and dressed with the pizzazz of an upper-end brand. It's located beside Six Flags Park and near Hurricane Harbor, Ameriquest Field and the proposed site of the $650-million Dallas Cowboys' stadium. The Dallas-based La Quinta already is holding a letter of intent to sell of 10 of the 13 prized acres to a developer who's planning to build retail and restaurant space that will be complementary to the new seven-story facility, Tallis tells GlobeSt.com.

The 170-suite Arlington hotel will cost $12 million to build. It will be the first hotel product to rise in at least five years in the Interstate 30 entertainment district. "We think when we're done, we will have the nicest hotel there," says Francis W. Cash, the chain's chairman.

For La Quinta veterans like Tallis, the project has been on the "wish list" since the hotel was bought in the late 1980s. "It was bought with the idea it would be demolished," Tallis says. "It just took us awhile. For whatever reason, the previous management teams did not look at that property as a redevelopment candidate." With many veterans now seated at the head of the table, the project has become a top priority, he stresses.

The La Quinta Inns & Suites will take one year to complete. The replacement will have 3,000 sf of meeting space, fitness center, business center, enlarged lobby and breakfast area and a courtyard-enclosed swimming pool with Jacuzzi.

Unlike other redevelopment candidates, the Arlington Convention Center hotel will lose rooms rather than gain. Most often, vintage properties with 122 to 135 rooms will be built out as 150- to 175-suite hotels. With Arlington ready to go and San Antonio put to bed, Tallis already is "examining" six older properties with equally "enduring" addresses in Houston, Denver, San Antonio and Phoenix for the 2006 roster.

Meanwhile, Tallis is hard at work courting joint venture partnerships for additional US development. He says he's optimistic he will ink some JV deals this year for six- to 20-hotel agreements as he forges ahead on an ambitious franchising program that could plant flags in Mexico and India as well as what's planned stateside. For that La Quinta story, click here.