Downtown Des Moines poised for hotel building boom

Downtown Des Moines is poised for an unprecedented wave of hotel construction that will add 951 rooms in the next few years — a nearly 50 percent increase from the rooms available today.

The building boom comes as hoteliers shift their focus from the suburbs, which have seen steady hotel growth in recent years.

The Des Moines metro has added more than 3,100 hotel rooms since 2006. A huge chunk  — 2,233 rooms — was built in the suburbs.

That leaves downtown primed for hotel growth, city officials say.

"We're really behind the curve downtown. There were a lot of years where we didn't have a lot of activity, so this is our catch-up phase," said Ryan Moffatt, economic development manager for Des Moines. "Right now, the spigot is open."

One of those projects, the 330-room Hilton Des Moines Downtown, opens Wednesday next door to the Iowa Events Center.

Source:  DesMoinesRegister.com