9 Story Hotel and Convention Center in J-Town

[arkansas_buff]

JONESBORO -- Mayor Doug Formon is more than confident that John Q. Hammons will build a hotel here.

It's a multimillion-dollar convention center that Formon and other city officials have to figure out.

Hammons, founder of John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts, announced Wednesday that he would build a 9-story, 220-room Courtyard by Marriott on 14 acres just southeast of the intersection of Caraway Road and Race Street. However, the project hinges on the city of Jonesboro agreeing to build an adjoining, 65,000-square-foot convention center, the hotelier explained.

Read the full story here.

[Arkansawyer]

This is great news for Northeast Arkansas, as it will give them the ability to compete with cities such as Little Rock, Hot Springs, and those in Northwest Arkansas for regional conventions. Furthermore, this gives East Arkansas its second major convention center, the other being in Pine Bluff. Surprisingly, pinebluff.com claims that its convention center is the state's largest meeting facility.

[johnnydr87]

Surprisingly, pinebluff.com claims that its convention center is the state's largest meeting facility.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't they all?

Anyways, this IS great news for NE Arkansas. I'm happy for Jonesboro. I've never visited the city (amazingly)but it has always interested me since it seems like an almost neglected major city of Arkansas. Not neglected economically...just more of an afterthought when thinking of the state.

What's the main industry there?

In other news, I believe Hot Springs was rumored to be getting a new hotel to hook up with the Convention Center. I think the Marriot. That makes Austin,Embassy Suites, and possibly a third...

edit:// great to see you guys back.

[Mith242]

Yeah I know when they built the Pine Bluff Convention Center it was supposed to be the largest in the state. I"m not sure if that still holds true. It is pretty spread out, and I do think think it has a lot of space for conventions. The problem is when they built it they were still in their phase of trying to compete with Little Rock. Back before Pine Bluff started losing people. With Pine Bluff's image it's a bit hard to lure in any large conventions. Everyone has gotten on board with conventions up here in northwest Arkansas. Springdale started it a while back and eventually Fayetteville joined in and now Rogers has gotten involved too. I think that Fayetteville actually has the smallest convention space of the three cities up here but Fayetteville seems to do pretty well because of it's image. It also seems to be the one city people tend to identify with in northwest Arkansas.

[Rural King]

This sounds like a great project. I heard about it the othey day on 90.7 NPR Memphis/Dyersburg when they ran the Memphis nightly news. I never realized that Jonesboro was doing so well. I think I may need to go over there and take some pictures of downtown (as is my hobby) and look around (check out that new mall) and see whats going on. I've never been there so I think I would find it to be a quite interesting place.

@arkansas_buff - What is downtown like currently?

[mcheiss]

Does anyone have any updates on this project?

It's been a while since we discussed this project, so hopefully construction has started.

[Aporkalypse]

This is great news for Northeast Arkansas, as it will give them the ability to compete with cities such as Little Rock, Hot Springs, and those in Northwest Arkansas for regional conventions. Furthermore, this gives East Arkansas its second major convention center, the other being in Pine Bluff. Surprisingly, pinebluff.com claims that its convention center is the state's largest meeting facility.

65k SF and a Courtyard by Marriott won't exactly compete with the state's other convention centers. It may find its own niche, though. I'm kind of surprised Hammons is behind it and not Belz-Burrow.

[Arkansawyer]

65k SF and a Courtyard by Marriott won't exactly compete with the state's other convention centers. It may find its own niche, though. I'm kind of surprised Hammons is behind it and not Belz-Burrow.

I didn't say that Jonesboro would compete with Arkansas' large convention centers for major or national events. I just said it would be able to "compete," meaning at least on some levels. Obviously Jonesboro won't compete with Little Rock or Hot Springs for events larger than it can handle, and it won't have the same impact on the convention market. Still, there are many small convention groups in Arkansas and the Mid-South region that would find Jonesboro very appealing.

[Aporkalypse]

I didn't say that Jonesboro would compete with Arkansas' large convention centers for major or national events. I just said it would be able to "compete," meaning at least on some levels. Obviously Jonesboro won't compete with Little Rock or Hot Springs for events larger than it can handle, and it won't have the same impact on the convention market. Still, there are many small convention groups in Arkansas and the Mid-South region that would find Jonesboro very appealing.

To do that they need more hotels in a bad way. Hotels are the limiting factor for practically any convention.