Maguire's Solana Getting More Hotel Rooms

The Marriott Solana's average occupancy is in the mid- to high 70% range, according to Tom Allen, the Texas partner for the Los Angeles-based Maguire. He tells GlobeSt.com that discussions about the second hotel arose after getting back land as part of an $80-million sale-leaseback with Sabre Holdings Corp., action that triggered a full review of the master-planned corporate campus along Texas 114 in Tarrant County.

"We have plenty of sites," Allen says. "It's just making certain everything else will work." And while there's no guarantee of a decision this quarter, he says the planning is far enough under way that it will be soon.

The addition of a seven-story wing to the Marriott Solana, situated at 5 Village Circle, is dovetailed with room renovations that will be completed in April. The 96-room wing, being added to the hotel's south side, is slated to deliver in October. St. Louis-based Voorhees International Inc. is renovating the existing rooms, taking down two levels at a time so that five floors are always in the check-in pool. Constructors & Associates of Dallas has been tapped as general contractor for the expansion. Mesa Design Group of Dallas is the landscape architect.

The Marriott was planned for 300 keys from the onset. "We've just run out of rooms to accommodate the need here," Michael Silliman, Maguire's vice president of leasing, says of the decision to now follow through on the original intent.

Village Center's original design team crafted the expansion: renowned architect Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico for the structure and Lauren Rottet, principal of Los Angeles-based DMJM Rottet, for the interior. The wing, which will go vertical by early summer, will add 4,500 sf of ground-floor meeting space, which will open to a 3,000-sf outdoor terrace and connect to the hotel's resort-style pool. The project includes a new fitness center and another 2,000 sf for the 6,000-sf ballroom.