Op-Ed: Hotel and Conference Center is Right for Roseville

By Mayor Susan Rohan and Vice Mayor Carol Garcia
Special to Roseville Patch 

The City of Roseville recently took a significant step forward in its longstanding effort to secure a full-service hotel and conference center in our community.  Beginning in the 1990s, the City Council recognized the need for additional meeting space in Roseville due to strong economic growth, community and business requests, and the general lack of high-end meeting and full-service lodging facilities. 

Since that time, our community has become a prominent retail destination, regional employment center, and Placer County’s most populous city.  Completion of a full-service hotel and conference center would satisfy an unmet community and business need, and would introduce another important amenity capable of generating significant economic benefit.

On December 5, 2012, the Council unanimously approved an initial pre-project agreement and exclusive right to negotiate with P3 International, LLC. – a hotel development team possessing worldwide experience in hotel design, construction, financing, and operation – for a potential contract to construct and operate the hotel and conference center under a public/private partnership.

The project would be located on vacant City-owned property adjacent to the Westfield Galleria Mall and Highway 65.  The proposed project envisions a 250-room full-service hotel with approximately 30,000 square feet of meeting space comprised of breakout meeting rooms, executive boardrooms, and a ballroom large enough to accommodate 1,000 seats in a banquet setting.

Preliminary study conducted by City staff indicates that the project has strong economic potential to the City and community through increased revenues, jobs, and local spending by hotel guests and conference attendees.  In the near term, the project would be expected to generate more than 600 construction jobs, over $84 million in local economic output during the course of construction, and over 200 permanent jobs associated with operations. 

To gauge community sentiment, the City hired a public opinion research firm to randomly sample businesses and residents, and to also directly contact specific businesses based on total employment and type of services provided.  The survey results demonstrated strong support, with over 62% of voters and 79% of businesses in support of the project and the City’s pursuit of it.  A detailed breakdown of survey results will be posted to the City’s website soon.  In the meantime, we encourage you to sign up for the City’s e-newsletter to receive project updates and other important City news.   

The timing is right, and the Council’s latest action represents one more positive step toward realizing the City’s goal of a full-service hotel and conference center.  Over the coming months, City staff will be negotiating a potential contract with P3 International and scrutinizing project details to ensure the City’s involvement with this project would be in the best interest of our community.  If negotiations prove successful, a contract to proceed with development of the project will be presented to the City Council in early to mid-2013 for public input and the Council’s further consideration. 

On behalf of the Council, we encourage you to learn more about the proposed project by participating in the pubic process and sharing your input with us. You can watch the Dec. 5 City Council presentation and see more information at www.roseville.ca.us/hcc.  

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