The Dallas Convention Center Hotel

Here's an issue that's at the top of a lot of agendas, but, frankly, I can't get too excited about it one way or another. If I had to come down on one side or the other, I'm going to say "Build the sucker," but I'm not about to go to the barricades over this one.

I do think the people who are against it are motivated by their own self interests (the Trammell Crow group, owners of the Anatole which stands to lose significant business when the Convention Center Hotel opens) and those whose vision is rather short-sighted. Opponents can drag out all the numbers they want to about the current state of the economy, the hotel business and the convention business, but 25 years from now I'm convinced everyone will be saying "Man, that convention center hotel was sure one swell idea that someone had."

What a lot of people (except Trammell Crow, of course) fail to realize is that a hotel of this nature is not just about booking rooms for those attending conventions at the adjacent convention center. Many, many conventions are too small to book a facility like the convention center -- they want a facility where they can go from their individual rooms to a large ballroom type facility without ever leaving the building. They also want decent food service and, oh, yes, television monitors, wireless Internet connectivity, blue ray DVD players, a Starbucks kiosk and all kinds of other goodies for their meetings. These types of conventions, which almost exclusively went to the Anatole, are now more likely to come to the downtown hotel because it's ... well ... downtown where there are far more transportation and entertainment options than exist at I-35E and Wycliff.

I have also noticed that all the other hotel operators in the downtown area favor the construction of the convention center hotel. I'm figuring they know more about this business than I and 99 percent of the hotel's critics. So when the stupid waste-of-time vote comes around next May, I'll be on the side that says "Let the dirt fly," but don't ask me to go to the mat on this one.