Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center Gets $120M Expansion

By Adelina Osan, Associate Editor

Grapevine, Texas—Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. recently announced plans to expand Grapevine’s Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center. The $120 million expansion will add more guestrooms and meeting space, making Gaylord Texan the second largest non-gaming convention center hotel in the U.S. as measured by total self-contained exhibit and meeting space.

Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center

The expansion project will add 300 guest rooms to the resort’s current 1,511 room inventory and an additional 86,000 square feet of carpeted meeting space, bringing the total meeting space to approximately 490,000 square feet. The project’s 300 hotel rooms and accompanying 286 square feet of carpeted meeting space per key has a preliminary total cost per key of $383,000.

“For the past 12 months, we have talked about the strength in our business and the large group segment as a whole, where we are seeing increased demand for rooms and meeting space across our portfolio. At the same time that we are seeing this increased demand, we are also seeing almost no new competitive supply of this scale under construction for the foreseeable future, outside of the Gaylord Hotels brand. We view this expansion as a perfect opportunity to cement our unique position in the large group meetings market with a very efficient use of the company’s capital,” said in prepared remarks Colin Reed, chairman & CEO of Ryman Hospitality Properties.

Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center

The City of Grapevine has agreed to rebate $1 million of the hotel’s guestrooms tax annually for a ten-year period upon the completion of the expansion, for a total of $10 million in city incentives.

“This investment at Gaylord Texan is also a continued investment in Grapevine and its citizens. We look forward to its completion and the additional visitors we will welcome to our great city as a result,” said William Tate, Mayor of Grapevine.

Images courtesy of Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center