KENNER -- Construction started on the 121-room Hilton Garden Inn
New Orleans/Kenner Pontchartrain Center here.
The hotel, expected to open in the third quarter of this year,
will be operated under a license agreement between Hilton Inns and
Pontchartrain Hotel Investment Group LLC.
The three-story property will feature a glass-walled pavilion
housing a guest reception area, a restaurant that will be open for
three meals a day, a pantry store, a business center and meeting
facilities.
An exercise room, an outdoor swimming pool and a laundry
facility will be among the other features offered.
Rooms will include a microwave oven; a coffeemaker; a
minirefrigerator; a sitting area; a work desk with a pull-out shelf
for a portable computer; two telephones with two lines, voice mail
and data ports, and satellite cable television with on-demand
movies.
Adjacent to the 70,000-square-foot Pontchartrain Center, the
property will overlook Lake Pontchartrain, 12 miles from downtown
New Orleans and five miles from New Orleans Airport.
Dieter Huckestein, Hilton Hotels Corp. president, hotel
operations, said hotel accommodations at the upper end of the
midprice category are in high demand among business and leisure
travelers.
"Hilton Garden Inn hotels are uniquely designed to meet the
needs of this burgeoning segment," he said.
More than 200 Hilton Garden Inn properties are expected to be
open or under construction in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by the
end of 2000.