A rendering of the Jonesboro Embassy Suites hotel and convention center that is set to open in December.
Education, entertainment and hospitality will combine when the Red Wolf Convention Center opens on the Arkansas State University campus in late summer.
Cost of project
40,000 SF
of convention space
203 rooms
Embassy Suites by Hilton
550 jobs
on the construction phase
Hotel could house
500-600
for multi-day events
The $58 million project, slated for completion in July or August, will include a 203-room Embassy Suites by Hilton and an attached Houlihan’s restaurant, while also serving as a living laboratory for Arkansas State’s hospitality management program.
O’Reilly Hospitality Management (OHM) of Springfield, Missouri, will manage the facility.
The seven story facility will feature 40,000-SF of convention space and employ around 200 people full or part time, said OHM founder and CEO Tim O’Reilly at last summer’s groundbreaking ceremony.
O’Reilly had backed the ASU hospitality management program from the start and said he was hoping it would provide a pipeline for employees to his company.
O’Reilly estimated the convention center’s net space would hold about 1,200 seated people and the hotel could house 500-600 for multi-day events.
An ASU College of Business and Arkansas Economic Development Commission analysis projected an economic impact of $44 million from the completed project, plus $1.1 million in state and local taxes.
Springfield’s Butler Rosenbury & Partners Inc., designed the facility, and Little Rock’s Clark Contractors LLC is the general contractor. The construction phase was projected to create 550 jobs with an economic impact of $64 million.
O’Reilly said his company would have to go through the process of obtaining a liquor license for the restaurant and predicted it would take a couple years for Jonesboro to crack the state’s convention center rotation — which frequently includes Little Rock, Hot Springs and northwest Arkansas — to start drawing statewide events.
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