The Paducah City Commission got an update Tuesday night on a new downtown hotel that will connect to the Julian Carroll Convention and Expo Center. Paducah Riverfront Development Authority Executive Director Steve Doolittle says the Hilton Garden Inn will give a “stunning” look to downtown.
“I think when PRDA approved the major earthmatic elements we had a very good discussion about getting a hotel that didn’t look like it was an interstate hotel that really fit the urban fabric of downtown Paducah,” Doolittle said.
According to Doolittle, renovations to the Showroom will begin in January and completed before the annual American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show and Contest.
“To the question, ‘will we be ready for the Quilt Show,’ failure is not an option,” Doolittle said. “So yes, we will be.”
The Convention Center’s Eisenhower room will become the entrance from the Garden Inn’s new pedestrian bridge. The hotel will also construct a meeting space twice the size of the Eisenhower room.
The city of Paducah will provide land, and nine hundred thousand dollars for non-hotel improvements, including the pedestrian bridge, parking, and a three hundred thousand dollars safety net for the hotel’s first five years of business, to be repaid.
Developer David Puckett told the commission, loans for the new hotel should be completed next month.
