Over 100 rooms have recently been added to the downtown market and hundreds more are planned or under construction.

Restoration St. Louis recently opened Hotel St. Louis in the historic Union Trust building, and last month its owners announced plans to expand the hotel into the adjacent Chemical Building.

Underway is Fe Equus’ 143-room hotel in the old International Shoe Co. headquarters. A Live! by Loews hotel under construction in Ballpark Village will add 216 rooms to the entertainment district. And a 185-room, $48 million 21c Museum Hotel is planned for the old YMCA downtown.

The 21c’s ownership group, Colorado-based Nuovo RE, also applied for tax abatement. St. Louis Development Corp. staff is recommending 10 years of 90 percent tax abatement and five years of 50 percent abatement.

All of the hotel additions have prompted SLDC to seek a consultant market report on the area’s hotel market and room demand. Some aldermen have questioned whether the city should be subsidizing so many hotels.

The city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority has been considering hiring H&H Financial, the firm of Chesterfield hotel analyst Gary Andreas, to study the market. The cost would be $11,500. The board in January balked at the hotel contract, calling it unnecessary. But on Tuesday, it approved hiring Andreas to conduct the study.

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