Galleria Plaza Hotel Launches

If you truly shop 'til you drop every holiday season, never fear. A Hyatt Regency has broken ground across the street from the Galleria.

SongyHighRoads and The Carlyle Group are building the 14-story, 325-room hotel in the Galleria Plaza complex, which they purchased earlier this year. Songy COO Todd Nocerini tells us the hotel is step one in upgrading that whole complex and making it true Class-A mixed-use. (The complex needs to become Class-A now if it ever wants to get into a good college.) Galleria Plaza already includes two office buildings totaling nearly 400k SF and almost 30k SF of retail on 7.6 acres, and Todd tells us it can add more retail and other uses. Renovations are underway at GP II office project; GP I is next. Todd says the complex is nearly full but hasn't been getting a lot of attention--this activity will catch the market's eye. Pictured: CEO David Songy.

The Galleria is one of the top hospitality submarkets in the country, with average hotel occupancy over 77%. The new property should be a welcome addition; most existing full-service hotel inventory there is over 20 years old. And Todd's excited to bring the Hyatt Regency brand there, including its 24/7 marketplace concept. The 260k SF property is designed by Gensler and being built by McCarthy Construction. It'll include 15k SF of meeting space and will be managed by Aimbridge Hospitality when it delivers in late summer 2015. Todd tells us Songy is eying several other opportunities in Houston.