Hard Rock Cafe/Hotel in BRANSON?
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:41 pm
I don't think Hard Rock is enough of a reason to get me to Branson...
From today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Branson plans $300 million waterfront convention center
By TODD C. FRANKEL
Post-Dispatch
08/17/2003
BRANSON, Mo. - This musical mountain town is pushing ahead with an ambitious $300 million convention center and commercial development along its waterfront.
The Branson Landing project calls for a mile-long curving boardwalk, town square, convention center, 300-room hotel and 500,000 square feet of retail space, which is about three times as large as Union Station in St. Louis.
Hard Rock Cafe is one of two firms looking to build the hotel, said Rick Huffman, president of HCW Development Co.
A Hard Rock Cafe in Branson?
"The entire project will bring in customers from Kansas City, St. Louis and Little Rock who might not normally come to Branson," Huffman said.
City and business officials certainly hope so.
The average age of a Branson tourist is 56, and the entertainment offerings rely heavily on performers unfamiliar to a younger generation (like the Lennon Sisters or Andy Williams and Glen Campbell). Grumblings about business being down this year are flying up and down the main Highway 76 strip. And this month, the company that owns Silver Dollar City and four other Branson properties announced it was laying off 90 people because of slack attendance.
Branson Landing is planned for the spot where Highway 76 dead-ends into Lake Taneycomo, just on the other side of Boxcar Willie Drive. The shops of historic Branson sit nearby.
The project is expected to break ground in December and open in phases beginning in the summer of 2005.
"It will change Branson," city spokesman Jerry Adams said.
Reporter Todd C. Frankel
E-mail: tfrankel@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8110
From today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Branson plans $300 million waterfront convention center
By TODD C. FRANKEL
Post-Dispatch
08/17/2003
BRANSON, Mo. - This musical mountain town is pushing ahead with an ambitious $300 million convention center and commercial development along its waterfront.
The Branson Landing project calls for a mile-long curving boardwalk, town square, convention center, 300-room hotel and 500,000 square feet of retail space, which is about three times as large as Union Station in St. Louis.
Hard Rock Cafe is one of two firms looking to build the hotel, said Rick Huffman, president of HCW Development Co.
A Hard Rock Cafe in Branson?
"The entire project will bring in customers from Kansas City, St. Louis and Little Rock who might not normally come to Branson," Huffman said.
City and business officials certainly hope so.
The average age of a Branson tourist is 56, and the entertainment offerings rely heavily on performers unfamiliar to a younger generation (like the Lennon Sisters or Andy Williams and Glen Campbell). Grumblings about business being down this year are flying up and down the main Highway 76 strip. And this month, the company that owns Silver Dollar City and four other Branson properties announced it was laying off 90 people because of slack attendance.
Branson Landing is planned for the spot where Highway 76 dead-ends into Lake Taneycomo, just on the other side of Boxcar Willie Drive. The shops of historic Branson sit nearby.
The project is expected to break ground in December and open in phases beginning in the summer of 2005.
"It will change Branson," city spokesman Jerry Adams said.
Reporter Todd C. Frankel
E-mail: tfrankel@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8110