by Adolfo Pesquera
Marble Falls (Burnet Co.) – The city of Marble Falls is proceeding with a public-private partnership plan to construction a waterfront hotel and conference center.
According to news reports in Marble Falls News and The Highlander, the Marble Falls Economic Development Corporation approved an investment of $6.5 million through bond financing for the $25.3 million project. The private equity partner is Novak Cobalt Partners LLC, a Georgetown-based LLC that formed March 10 that is headed up by Jeff Novak, a former National Football League player turned real estate developer.
Novak is founder and chief executive officer of Novak Brothers, which recently completed the 222-room Sheraton Georgetown Texas Hotel & Conference Center. This project was done jointly with Hines. The hotel includes 30,000 square feet of meeting space. It is part of a larger mixed use development called The Summit at Rivery Park that includes residential, retail and entertainment.
The Aug. 3 Marble Falls EDC action calls for a select service resort hotel with about 150 guest rooms and an adjacent full-service, two-story, 16,000-square-foot conference center, restaurant and bar. It will be located west of Buena Vista, directly across from an existing Hampton Inn.
The project site extends across Buena Vista to the waterfront property in front of the Hampton Inn and adjacent to Lakeside Park, which is on a small peninsula surrounded by the Colorado River and Backbone Creek.
There are significant amenities planned for the waterfront property that effectively expand and enhance the park. These include a lakeside amphitheater, a Lakeside Park boardwalk and trail, a botanical garden and covered bridge to the northeast, a Johnson Park bridge connection, a “lake walk,” cabana and fountain features, according to Glynis Crawford Smith of The Highlander.
The Lakeside Park boat ramp will be demolished, however, that is Texas Department of Transportation property that will have to be rebuilt at another location.
Connie Swinney at DailyTrib.com reports that City Council and Marble Falls EDC will hold a joint meeting Sept. 20 to approve issuance of the capital improvement bonds.
The hotel operator is expected to be named later this month. Construction is anticipating to begin by April 2017, Swinney reported.
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adolfo@virtualbx.com
