Work Toward a Tyler Conference Center

TYLER — The Tyler City Council voted unanimously to accept a letter of intent from Champ Hospitality to continue work to bring a conference center to the Rose City. A conference center would be attached to a privately owned hotel in the city. Champ Hospitality will seek private funding to develop the hotel portion of the project. Mayor Martin Heines said the hotel-conference center is a public-private partnership, with the city primarily funding the conference center and private investment constructing the hotel. The conference center would be located on city-owned property next to the new Village at Cumberland Park retail development at Broadway and Loop 49.

The City owns 17.97 acres, a portion of which will be leased to the hotel developer for the project. The site will also feature a 3.25 acre lake.

This project has been a long time in the making with the City exploring many options over the last 5 years. The budget for the project will not be finalized until the design is complete and bids are obtained; however, it is estimated to be around $48 million. The City’s portion for the conference center project will not exceed $19 million.

Tourism was identified as one of Tyler’s chief opportunities for economic growth in the Industry Growth Initiative that was adopted in mid-2010. It is estimated that at least 20-30,000 room nights are lost each year because Tyler has not had the facilities to accommodate larger conferences. According to Mayor Heines, “Tourism brings fresh dollars to our economy. This is money from outside our region being spent in Tyler. The result is jobs for Tylerites and economic vitality.”