HOUSTON – The 266-room Hotel Sorella has been renamed The Moran CityCentre, hotel owner Midway Cos. announced. Midway is the developer behind CityCentre, the mixed-use destination in west Houston.
The property, which opened a decade ago and has been recognized by Condé Nast among the city’s top hotels, will undergo a refresh as part of the rebranding.
HEI Hotels & Resort, a hospitality investment and management firm based in Norwalk, Connecticut, has assumed management of the hotel, replacing Houston-based Valencia Hotels Group.
The Moran name honors Midway’s founder, Jim Moran. Midway, a Houston real estate development company with a portfolio spanning mixed-use, office, retail, residential and land projects, traces its roots to Moran’s leadership.
“This rebranding is not only a long-overdue tribute to our founder, Jim Moran, but also reflects his integrity, energy and enthusiasm — along with his fun-loving, entrepreneurial spirit — qualities that are central to this independent, world-class property,” said Jonathan Brinsden, Midway’s CEO.
Midway Chairman Brad Freels noted the timing is meaningful. “Jim Moran passed away 20 years ago this year, and we wanted to do more than mark the hotel’s 10th anniversary. We are honoring the man whose values continue to guide our decisions,” he said.
Midway describes the hotel as a key element in making CityCentre a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, enhancing guests’ access to an array of shopping, dining and entertainment options within the mixed-use environment.
CityCentre sits at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Beltway 8.
Midway is preparing to begin construction on CityCentre Six, an office building at the north end of the development. Colvill Office Properties will lease the building, which will offer roughly 275,000 square feet of office space and 8,500 square feet of street-level retail. The site at the traffic circle where Town & Country Way meets Town & Country Boulevard has already been cleared.
Adjacent to the CityCentre Six parcel, Marathon Oil Corp. has commissioned a build-to-suit office tower. Hines is developing a roughly 500,000-square-foot building for Marathon on that site.
CityCentre today encompasses approximately 2 million square feet, including about 350,500 square feet of retail and dining, 625,000 square feet of Class-A office space, coworking offerings from Life Time Work, Spaces and Fuse Dynamic Workspace, 35 brownstone residences, 1,155 upscale apartments and lofts, the 171-room Four Points by Sheraton–CityCentre and The Moran CityCentre hotel.
“We focused on details when building CityCentre and this hotel,” Brinsden said. “Those details shape the urban fabric and create authenticity. At The Moran CityCentre, guests are truly in the center of it all.”
Dec. 12, 2019 Realty News Report
Read the new book by Ralph Bivins, editor of Realty News Report
Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town – An Extreme Close Up
Available on Amazon
