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| Balfour Beatty to build new Houston Convention Center Hotel  Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, announces that RIDA Development Corporation has selected Balfour Beatty Construction US as a joint venture partner with WELBRO Building Corporation to build the new, £207 million ($324million) 30-storey Houston Convention Center Hotel in downtown Houston.The hotel will have 1,000 rooms and will be the second hotel to serve the George R. Brown Convention Center / Convention Center District. The hotel is planned to be a Marriott Marquis, which is a brand extension of the Marriott International's signature Marriott Hotel & Resorts Brand, and will attach to the convention centre via a skybridge. (The site is located on the block immediately north of Discovery Green, at Walker St and Avenidas de las Americas.) Houston‐based, RIDA Development Corp. is developing the Marriott Marquis through a co-operative endeavour with Houston First Corp. RIDA was selected by Houston First Corporation in September of 2012. RIDA and Florida‐based, WELBRO Building Corp. have completed several hospitality projects together, including the Hilton Orlando Convention Centre Hotel in 2009. RIDA and WELBRO selected Balfour Beatty as their local JV partner to build the 30‐story tower. The RIDA team also includes Houston‐based, Morris Architects as lead architect for the project; Looney & Associates of Dallas for interior design; Haynes Whaley as the structural engineer; Bury Partners as the civil engineer; and Blum/DBR as the MEP engineer. Preconstruction of the project will be ongoing throughout the remainder of 2013 and into 2014 (with ground breaking anticipated in the first quarter of 2014.) Construction will encompass approximately 26 months and add more than 1,800 construction jobs and 700 permanent jobs to the Houston hospitality industry. Houston will host the NCAA Final Four in April 2016, and RIDA has indicated that they would like for the Marriott Marquis to be one of the host hotels. write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Construction News :: home page |