W Hotel still eyeing Music Row Roundabout

Hotel chain angling for site, with another luxury chain possibly lingering in background for the site

Email | Print By Richard Lawson

06-07-2006 12:10 PM — Last night, the new owners of the former Barbara Mandrell Theater, Houston-based Lionstone Group, got what they needed to proceed with developing the 3-acre site – a key alley closure on one border of the property.

Future development of the site could include a W Hotel or perhaps a new high-end brand from a company run by former Ritz-Carlton executives, according to sources familiar with the project.

Metro Council had passed the ordinance last month but a parliamentary procedure delayed it until last night. A motion to reconsider failed last night.

Lionstone has been working on plans for the site since paying $9.15 million for the property in March. Nothing is set in stone yet. But in discussions with city officials, Lionstone has revealed that the project would have a hotel, residential and some street-level retail.

W, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, has been angling for the project for several years, according to sources. Developer Jim Caden, who is working with Lionstone, wouldn't comment.

Atlanta-based West Paces Hotel Group has inquired about the site as well, but W appears to be in the lead, sources said. Horst Schulze, former vice chairman and chief operating officer of Ritz-Carlton, founded West Paces several years ago. The company's executive ranks are filled with former Ritz-Carlton executives.

West Paces has created two luxury brands, Solis Hotels & Resorts and Capella Hotels & Resorts. The first Solis resort is scheduled to open in Sunny Isles, Fla., in 2008. The first Capella resort is scheduled for 2007 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

The contact is likely a holdover from the history that Ritz has with the former Barbara Mandrell Theater site. The former owner, country star Reba McEntire's Starstruck Entertainment, had wanted to develop the site itself, first striking a hotel deal with Ritz. That project couldn't be worked out.

The hotel supplanted Ritz-Carlton in 2001 when Newport Beach, Calif.-developer Makar Properties put a contract on the site. That deal was nixed in October 2001 after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 that year made an already tough hotel climate even tougher.

Starstruck decided to sell the property, and it had been in and out of contract with different developers until Lionstone. A W Hotel had been in the background with the different developers.