Officials break ground for the Hilton Columbus Downtown July 13. Mayor Michael Coleman (with blue tie) and Hilton SVP Ted Ratcliff (to his right) are at the center of the picture.

Hilton Worldwide solidified its grip on downtown Columbus business July 13, breaking ground on a $140-million, 532-room hotel linked by a walkway to the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The new hotel will complement the nearby Hampton Inn and Suites Columbus Downtown.

Joined by officials from Columbus, the Franklin County Convention Authority and Michael B. Coleman, the mayor of Ohio’s fastest-growing city, Hilton executive Ted Ratcliff promised that the Hilton Columbus Downtown will open in fall 2012 and help make Columbus a destination.

Sealing the publicly financed deal for the hotel, which Hilton will manage: The Southern Baptist Convention announced it would hold its first Columbus gathering in 2015, bringing some 16,000 attendees and $6.2 million in spending to the city. In addition, the Ohio Florists’ Association, which wrapped up its 2010 gathering at the convention center that day, re-upped through 2016. Its officials had been talking about moving to Indianapolis, but the new Hilton will keep it in town.

“We’ll come, and perhaps we’ll come often,” said Donald Magee, associate vice president of finance for the Southern Baptist Convention.
According to John S. Christie, chairman of the county convention facilities board, the imminent, full-service Hilton means the city will be able to compete for another 900 meetings, vying with the likes of Pittsburgh, Louisville and Indianapolis. He noted that the Hilton is the second major convention facilities project of the year. The first was the $40-million transformation of the Battelle Grand, a 74,000-square-foot, multi-purpose ballroom in the convention center, unveiled in January.
The convention center contains 1.7 million square feet of total space, including 426,000 square feet of exhibit space. It has long outpaced the hotel room supply in Columbus, a gap the Hilton will go a long way to fill, officials suggested.

Financed by bonds issued by the county convention authority and underwritten by the city, the hotel will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified. Eventually, it will be owned by the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority. Mayor Coleman said the Hilton will give Columbus a greater chunk of the $7-billion tourism industry, noting it will lead to 550 jobs and return $3.40 for every dollar invested. He called it the city’s own “stimulus package.”