Gaylord Texan announces expansion plans

The Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine is going from big to bigger.

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. announced Wednesday plans for a $120 million expansion of the resort and convention center on the shores of Grapevine Lake.

The expansion will add 300 guest rooms to the resort’s current 1,511 rooms and will add 86,000 square feet of meeting space, bringing the total meeting space to approximately 490,000 square feet.

Once the expansion is complete, the Gaylord Texan will become the second largest non-gaming convention center hotel in the United States.

“The Texan has witnessed strong growth over the past several years, and this expansion will allow us to meet significant existing customer demand for additional high-quality meeting space while also enabling us to market the Texan to a new group of prospects that have not been able to come to Grapevine due to their space requirements,” said Colin Reed, chairman and chief executive officer of Ryman Hospitality Properties.

The meeting space addition includes a new 30,000-square-foot ballroom, 30,000 square feet of breakout space and approximately 26,000 square feet of carpeted pre-function space.

Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year and be completed during the second quarter of 2018.

The project also includes a $5 million expansion of the property’s resort pool complex, which is expected to be complete for the 2016 summer season.

The City of Grapevine has agreed to rebate $1 million of the hotel’s rooms tax annually for a ten-year period upon the completion of the expansion, for a total of $10 million in city incentives.

In 2007, the Company announced plans to expand the Gaylord Texan; however, the plans were put on hold due to the economic downturn that occurred in 2008.