Aug. 31–Florida International University is planning a $59 million hotel and conference center in hopes of attracting more researchers, conventions and out-of-town visitors.
Construction is scheduled to begin in March on the northwest corner of FIU's main campus on Southwest Eighth Street near Sweetwater, off Florida's Turnpike in western Miami-Dade County.
It's expected to be ready by June 2019, with average room rates projected to start at $153 a night, according to plans.
FIU has submitted this rendering of its proposed 150-room hotel and convention center on its main campus in western Miami-Dade County.
The project includes a seven-story, 150-bed upscale hotel with a pool, fitness center, restaurant and conference center.
An $8 million, 14,000-square-foot alumni center would be housed in a separate building on the property.
The Florida Board of Governors, which makes policy for state universities, is expected to vote on whether to approve the plans at a meeting Thursday in Gainesville.
This would be the first university-affiliated hotel in South Florida. Elsewhere in the state, the University of Florida in Gainesville has a hotel and conference center, while the University of Central Florida in Orlando plans to start construction on one this fall.
Florida Atlantic University officials discussed plans in 2013 for a hotel and conference center on its Boca Raton campus, but has yet to submit any formal plans to the state.
Several universities in the state have conference centers, including FIU, which has one on its Biscayne Bay campus in North Miami.
FIU officials provided detailed plans to the Board of Governors.
"A hotel and conference center is needed to serve the accommodation and conference needs of students, visitors, faculty, researchers and the community," the plans state.
The hotel and conference center would enable the university to attract more academic and research conferences, career fairs, award ceremonies and speaker series, according to the documents.
The project has been in FIU's master plans for years, but studies commissioned by the university in 2008 and 2013 questioned the need for it.
FIU's population was mostly local and there were plenty of hotels in the area already, consultants found.
But FIU says those studies were based on a larger-sized hotel and excluded having an alumni center next door, which would create additional demand. A 2015 study found "sufficient demand" for a 150-bed hotel, the university wrote.
FIU says the project isn't risky for the university. It would be built through a public-private partnership with Arizona-based Concord Benchmark LLC, with Coral Springs-based Benchmark Management Company handling the day-to-day operations.
FIU "will have no financial obligation to support the hotel or conference center operations or debt obligations," the university wrote. "FIU will not guarantee any number of room nights or any level of revenue operating support."
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