Cincinnati’s downtown Convention District has operated without an anchor hotel for years, one of a number of drawbacks that resulted in missed economic investment opportunities in the form of tourism, shows, events, and conventions that similar-sized cities were able to attract more easily. With the renovated First Financial Center now opened and the Elm Street Plaza making its debut, attention moves across Fifth Street to construction of the new Marriott headquarters hotel.
As convention-goers know, easy access to a hotel room is a must-have. Not only do you want a convenient spot to sleep and store your belongings, but you also need a place to unwind between meetings, change clothes, exercise, or grab a bite to eat with clients and colleagues. Having a hotel connected to the convention center also eases the logistics of reserving rooms, hiring caterers, coordinating events, and dealing with transportation, parking issues, and inclement weather.
Once completed in 2028, the new hotel will boast 700 rooms, 36 suites, a full-service restaurant with an outdoor bar, an outdoor event terrace, 62,000 square feet of flexible meeting spaces, and one big, beautiful skybridge across Fifth Street linking all of it to the First Financial Center. The hotel, developed by Atlanta-based Portman Holdings and 3CDC, will sit in the heart of the Convention
District where a surface parking lot used to be. Together with the convention center renovation, Hamilton County, the city of Cincinnati, the state of Ohio, and private partners are investing almost $1 billion into this area of downtown, dubbed the Convention District. Portman’s managing director of hospitality, Kaunteya Chitnis, is excited by not only the grandness of a new, modern Marriott but also by the growth, excitement, and tourism the project brings to downtown Cincinnati.
“Having almost a billion dollars going into a convention center with a brand-new hotel next to it opens up a whole variety of new business avenues for the convention center, the hotel, and for Cincinnati as an economic investment,” he says.
The new Marriott hotel will serve as a modern offering in a city flooded with “vintage stock,” says Chitnis. The hotel’s novelty and its physical connection to the convention center will help open up the city to more convention and tourism opportunities. “Convention center hotel development is so important to get right,” he says. “It can be foundational for a city’s main entertainment center and be the urban product that can raise the tide for all boats.”
In addition to constructing the new Marriott, Portman Holdings will also renovate and modernize the existing Westin Hotel across from Fountain Square and bring it up to today’s convention hotel standards. The Westin will remain open during the renovation, says Chitnis, and the plan is to complete both hotels in 2028. The two assets together will offer 1,200 new or newly renovated rooms ready to anchor a more competitive convention destination.