Blueprint Plans Le Meridien Hotel in Fort Worth

Anyone who’s been tracking Fort Worth’s real estate market in recent years knows it’s no longer a one-horse town. But until recently, its hotel scene hadn’t caught up.

Now, Blueprint Hospitality is planning a 14-story hotel at 811 Commerce Street near the convention center downtown, the Dallas Morning News reports. The development, called Le Meridien Fort Worth, will be the city’s third luxury hotel.

The 188-key project will include a pool and gym on the sixth floor, as well as a rooftop terrace. Remington Hospitality will head up operations. The hotel is expected to open next spring.

There are two other Le Meridien properties in Dallas, one at 13402 Noel Road and the other at 2927 Maple Avenue. There is also one in downtown Houston, at 1121 Walker Street.

Elsewhere in Texas, Blueprint is planning a $55 million office-to-hotel conversion at the old CPS Energy headquarters at 145 Navarro Street in San Antonio. That project, in the city’s prime River Walk area, would create a 243-key hotel called El Portal, and would belong to the Marriott Autograph brand.

Blueprint, which operates out of Houston and Chicago, was founded in 2012 and is led by Kunal Mody.

Le Meridien will follow Auberge Resorts’ Bowie House and Crescent Development’s Crescent Hotel, both in the Cultural District west of downtown. In all, nearly 189 hotels with 22,000 keys are in development in Dallas-Fort Worth. By comparison, Atlanta and Nashville have 140 and 122 projects in the works, respectively.

The metroplex at large has seen some significant luxury hotels come online in recent months. The $520 million Omni PGA Resort in Frisco will spread across 660 acres, and eventually include 500 guest rooms, 49 suites and 10 luxury homes.

A huge expansion in inventory has driven down occupancy rates in the metroplex, but demand is still six points higher than it was before the pandemic, according to Marcus & Millichap.