EDINBURG, RGV – Edinburg will have two new Hilton hotels very soon, says Mayor Richard Molina.
The hotels are being built on Trenton Road, not far from the new Bert Ogden Arena. The location is not accidental, the mayor told the Rio Grande Guardian, in an exclusive interview.
“They are going to compliment each other. One of the restaurants that has been named (as part of the hotel plaza) besides the Way-On’s is an eatery where they will have a view of Trenton, so they will be able to see all the traffic coming to and from the Arena,” Molina said.
In fact, the top sports and music artists that will perform at the Bert Ogden Arena will likely stay at one of the new Hilton hotels, the mayor predicted.
“The mega fights, I am talking about the fights that you are used to seeing maybe in Las Vegas. I know the company they (Bert Ogden Arena) have, LiveNation, is going to book premier boxing matches, premier WWE wrestling entertainment. The basketball games. There are all these people that are going to be coming into the city. They are going to need a place to stay. Those hotels are right around the corner,” Molina said.
“So you are going to have momentum going on there. This is where we are looking for the First Hartford (The Shoppes at Rio Grande Valley) to take off. They have Texas Roadhouse and Taco Palenque. They have the I-Hop, they have Bob’s Steak & Chop House. We are looking for all of this to really take off. It is going to have a tremendous economic impact because of the Arena, because of the traffic going there. Before they watch the show or after the show.”
Asked what sort of incentive package was given to the developers, Molina said: “The incentives that were given totaled a million dollars over a three-and-a-half-year period. They are driven by performance. They must produce the structures within a 12-month span.”
Asked how big a deal it is for Edinburg to land two new Hilton hotels, Molina said:
“Big news. We did finally come to terms with two brand new Hilton hotels on Trenton, just on the north side of where the appraisal district is. We do have a commercial plaza that is coming in. They have got several restaurants signed. One of those restaurants is guaranteed and (has) already started. They have already closed (on the deal) and are ready to start building permits. It is the first of its kind. It is called Walk-On’s. They have been courting the Valley for several months and the deal finally got closed a couple of weeks ago.”
Molina said the Hilton hotels that are coming are “first of their kind” for the Rio Grande Valley. “I met with the developer. He said this was the first Hilton of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley.”
Molina added: “This is big because it is our first Hilton family hotel to come into the city of Edinburg. There are other Hilton hotels in McAllen but this is the first of its kind in the city of Edinburg. You talk about HOT (hotel occupancy tax) tax and what it does for us being able to go out and promote the city even more. We did have a talk about the HOT tax earlier this morning and how the revenues have been increasing.”
Molina said he is inviting the people of Edinburg to come to the groundbreaking ceremony for the Hilton hotels.
“We will have a date for you as soon as next week. They (the developers) are basically trying to do this in a package to show the economic impact of the entire development, to include the hotels and the shopping plazas and the restaurants that are in those plazas.”
Editor’s Note: The main image accompanying the above news story shows a generic photo of a Hilton hotel. It is not necessarily a photo of one of the Hilton hotels coming to Edinburg.
