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The $19 million John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Ark., is moving quickly toward its scheduled July completion.
Larry Young, senior project manager at KCC Contractor Inc. of Springfield, Mo., said that as of mid-September the 110,000 sq. ft. convention center was about 10 percent complete.
"We started site work in June and began pouring concrete in July," Young said.
The center will incorporate 2,500 cu. yds. of concrete and 250 tons of structural steel. The remaining concrete pours will coincide with the progress of steel work.
"We began structural steel erection in September, which should be completed in six to eight weeks," Young said.
The slab-on-grade, structural steel frame construction will feature a brick veneer exterior with cast stone used to cap corner columns. Overhead will be a standing seam metal roof with an unusual extra.
"It has a large dome that will be constructed with a 165-ft. span centered over the ballroom," Young said.
The 42,000 sq. ft. ballroom will have a seating capacity of 3,000. The center will have the capability of subdividing into 18 meeting spaces with partitions, the biggest of which will stand 28-ft. tall.
The two main entries of the convention center will have large skylights overhead in a decorative rotunda with tile medallions. The main entry skylight is about 36 sq. ft., and the other is about half that size.
Young said KCC Contractors has encountered no surprises so far in the project.
"We hope to be substantially in the dry by the end of December, which obviously includes the roof and walls," he said.
Color schemes and architectural features of the center will be consistent with the neighboring nine-story, 252-suite Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas at 3303 Pinnacle Hills Parkway, which KCC Contractors completed in 2003.
Coordinating the work of tying the convention center into the north side of the hotel without disrupting business is an important consideration, Young said.
"That's quite a challenge from a construction standpoint as well as a design standpoint," he said.
The elevation difference between the hotel and convention center is about 11 ft. The topography requires the construction of retaining walls and handicap accessible ramps to link the higher ground of the hotel with the convention center.
The architectural firm of Butler Rosenbury & Partners Inc. of Springfield, Mo., handled the design work on the convention center.
In conjunction with the convention center, an expansion of the Embassy Suites is scheduled to start before year's end.
The addition of a six-story, 154-suite tower is touted as making the Rogers hotel the largest all-suites property in Arkansas.
"The explosive growth of the area requires additional upscale, business-class hotel rooms," said Rogers Mayor Steve Womack at the project's public unveiling. "The new developments will have a positive impact on our visitors' experience and on our local economy."
No dollar valuation is yet placed on the Embassy Suites addition, which will include a full-service spa on the first floor. The new tower should be completed during the third quarter 2006.
In keeping with the existing hotel, the structure of the addition will be cast-in-place, post-tensioned concrete with exteriors of red brick, precast ornamental copings and synthetic exterior stucco covering.
The Rogers development isn't the first hotel/convention center project that Hammons has undertaken in northwest Arkansas.
In 1990, the company developed the 206-room Holiday Inn Northwest Arkansas Hotel & Convention Center in nearby Springdale. Meeting space at the project totals 50,000 sq. ft.
"We're confident that the expansion of the the Embassy Suites Hotel, coupled with the development of the Hammons Center, will fill the tremendous need for luxury accommodations in this thriving city," said John Q. Hammons, the namesake founder, chairman and chief executive officer of John Q. Hammons Hotels, when the project was announced this summer.
The project is geared to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport west of Rogers and the nearby corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. in Lowell and Tyson Foods Inc. in Springdale.
Hammons Hotels owns 46 hotels in 20 states, containing 11,370 guest rooms or suites, and manages 14 additional hotels located in seven states containing 3,158 guest rooms or suites. The majority of these 60 hotels operate under the Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn and Marriott trade names.
The Rogers development is one of three Hammons hotel/convention center projects that KCC Contractors has under construction.
These include the Renaissance Hotel, Convention Center & Spa in Phoenix, a 12-story, 320-room hotel with 80,000 sq. ft. of convention space and a 700-slot parking deck. The project is expected to open in 2007 on the campus of the Phoenix Coyote's National Hockey League Arena and the Arizona Cardinal's new football stadium.
Rounding out the trio are the nine-story, 283,000-sq.-ft. Embassy Suites Hotel & Convention Center in Albuquerque, N.M., with 260 rooms and the 12-story, 280,000 sq. ft Embassy Suites Hotel & Convention Center in St. Charles, Mo., with 300 rooms.
Earlier this summer, Hammons announced it is considering plans for a $45 million northeast Arkansas hotel and convention center in Jonesboro.
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