Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center Set to Open Fall 2008
business, economic growth, embassy suites murfreesboro hotel and conference center, hotel, medical center parkway, suites,
The long-awaited Embassy Suites Murfreesboro Hotel and Conference Center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2008 – and at least one convention is already booked.
The $70 million complex on Medical Center Parkway, just off Interstate 24, will feature a 10-story, 283-suite hotel along with an adjacent 80,000-square-foot conference center that will be able to accommodate 2,000 people.
“Rutherford County hasn’t been able to host a group larger than 250 to 300 people, but soon we will be able to host 2,000,” says Mona Herring, vice president of the Rutherford County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Most conventions have groups of 500 or more, so we’ve been out of luck. But that will all change beginning in late 2008.”
The first convention that’s booked is the 2009 Society for Military History Conference, which will take place at the center from April 2-5, 2009.
“A group from Middle Tennessee State University will host that particular conference,” Herring says. “Derrick Frisbee, an assistant professor at MTSU, was very excited to be the first one to sign a contract with Embassy Suites. I’m sure that many more conventions will be generated from MTSU, where a lot of the professors are members of other professional organizations that hold national conventions.”
Herring says Embassy Suites will be responsible for booking all conventions, but the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce and the Rutherford County Convention & Visitors Bureau are happy to assist in any way.
“We have already provided the people at Embassy Suites with 30 or 40 leads from convention planners who have contacted us in recent times,” Herring says. “So we are kind of the middle man in the process and are glad to pass those leads to Embassy.”
The construction project is being managed by Springfield, Mo.-based John Q. Hammons Hotels Management Co. LLC – a company known for developing hotel and convention centers in strategic locations.
“Mr. Hammons tends to build properties around colleges and universities because they are big demand-generators,” says Becky Vealey, director of sales and marketing for Embassy Suites Murfreesboro Hotel and Conference Center. “Plus Rutherford County itself is growing so quickly. Big companies are located here, and Rutherford County is in the middle of Tennessee and close to the capital city of Nashville. It is an ideal location.”
Herring says the hotel/conference center will create 225 jobs and is expected to generate more than $20 million in revenue each year.
“More news in that location along Medical Center Parkway is that the Chamber, CVB, Small Business Development Center, Business Education Partnership, and the Economic Development offices are all moving into a new $5.6 million building – right across the street from the hotel/conference center,” she says. “Our new welcome center will be very handy for conference and meeting attendees to come into the chamber building for information about the area.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Brian McCord
