December Holiday Inn gift for run-down Dallas Plaza Hotel

DALLAS – A $34 million project set to turn the vacant and run-down Plaza Hotel south of downtown Dallas into a Holiday Inn is scheduled to start in December 2013.

The 12-story tower, which sits at 1011 South Akard St. just south of I-30, has for years served as an ugly welcome to the Cedars neighborhood. The plan is to turn it into a 220-room Holiday Inn, complete with an outdoor pool and amenity area.

One of the more interesting aspects of the project is a plan to use repurposed shipping containers to construct an estimated 1,800 sf of commercial space on the southeast corner of the hotel’s parking lot.

The Dallas Economic Development Committee members signed off on $2.3 million in Tax Increment Finance funding to offset some costs related to the hotel project. The owner and developer of the hotel is TEOF Hotel LLC.