The Hyatt is planning to start building a nine-story $18 million hotel in Waco starting in July, but first the company is asking the city to help pay for it.

Waco RL Hospitality, LLC requested the city’s Tax Increment Board also known as TIF for funding of $2,741,123 for the hotel. 

The new hotel will be on the corner of Mary Avenue and 3^rd Street. It will be nine stories high with 110 suites, large conference rooms, an outdoor roof deck pool and a rooftop full service bar.

“It will have beautiful views of the entire city all the way from the stadium to the Riverwalk, the Convention Center, Festival Street, the Silos – it will have a 360 degree view of the city,” says Vipal Patel, of Dhanyavad Development. “We want to make this part of Waco designation – saying if you are coming to town, you gotta go the Hyatt rooftop bar.”

There will be mutiple features on the lobby floor.

“This is Mary Street, the pink section is our festival section, the gray is the hotel lobby and cafe/dining, it will all open with the garage doors,” Patel explains. “Mary Avenue is supposed to be the Festival Street District, and in our design what we are trying to do is incorporate everything that you wanted to start that.”

There will also be a parking garage with 220 spaces. 

The developers offered an option for TIF to purchase one additional floor in the hotel’s parking garage that was 66 parking spaces out of the 220 spaces for an additional $1,425,600 for a total request of $4,166,723, but TIF decided they didn’t need more public parking so didn’t consider the option.

Out of $2,741,123 that was originally asked for funding by TIF, they only approved $1,902,975, which excluded costs for landscape, the 66 public parking spaces, and furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E).

“Based on what staff and I think, what City Center thought, we are probably covered for the time being. Nobody knows for sure. If bigger demand is down there, then what we expect, you know, we might have to have other parking for the future. But we did not fund that extra floor at this time,” says Wes Filer, TIF Board Chairman.

At night, the hotel will light up with LED lights expected to glow all across the city. Filer likes the idea of a new hotel.

“We’ve certainly been trying to encourage as much hotel development down for Convention Center purposes and other things,” Filer says.

The developers say they have been working on this project for years and can’t wait for construction to start in July. The hotel is expected to be complete by next July.

The reason the developers chose Mary Avenue and 3^_rd Street is because it is in the middle of downtown and close to everything.