CINCINNATI — The developer of Cincinnati’s next convention “headquarters hotel” has secured a $50 million city loan to close a financing gap for the $536 million project.
Atlanta-based Portman Holdings also revealed that it’s close to purchasing another downtown hotel so it can jointly book room blocks with its planned 700-room property.
Details of the financing plan — and new renderings of the Fifth Street hotel — were presented to Cincinnati City Council’s budget and finance committee this morning.
The new hotel has 100 fewer rooms and a completion date that’s about one year later than previous versions. Portman Holdings hasn’t identified the name and flag of the new hotel, nor would it say which existing property it plans to purchase.
“Portman Holdings is under contract to purchase a prominent, well positioned downtown hotel and is on schedule to close in June 2025,” said a 21-page presentation to city council from Portman and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., or 3CDC.
Portman and 3CDC requested a 3% city loan that would come from proceeds a $40 million bond issue and $10 million in savings from the renovation of Duke Energy Convention Center. City council unanimously approved the plan by authorizing the bond issue on June 18.
The loan would be repaid by hotel taxes that aren’t already pledged to the $264 million renovation project, along with tax-increment financing proceeds and funding from a New Community Authority that’s yet to be created in Cincinnati’s convention district.
If those funding sources don’t repay the $50 million loan within 30 years, the remaining balance will be forgiven.
Even with the low-interest loan, the hotel project faces an additional funding gap of $20 million. Portman and 3CDC said they hope to close that gap through “better construction pricing and cost-engineering solutions.”
