San Angelo Eyes New Downtown Hotel and Convention Center

The city must decide its future direction for conventions, White said. San Angelo can comfortably host conferences of 200-400 attendees, with about 1,300 total hotel rooms available citywide. Events like the Sheriff's Association of Texas gathering, which draws 254 county sheriffs, are a good fit, while a 2,000-3,000-person software convention is not.

By comparison, Abilene's convention center features 13,400 square feet of meeting space attached to a 20,000-square-foot exhibit hall. The 100,000-square-foot facility also includes a 45,000-square-foot auditorium and has its own website.

White outlined two paths to boost competitiveness. The first involves remodeling or expanding the current McNease to add more breakout meeting spaces and an exhibit hall, though this wouldn't address the shortage of nearby hotel rooms. The second, discussed for at least five years, is a public-private partnership with a developer to build a hotel and convention center along the Concho River.

The city owns 3.179 acres at 405 S. Chadbourne St., on the southwest corner of the Chadbourne Street bridge and the Concho River. The site once housed the Beaver Lodge Motel—described by locals as a "flophouse" in the mid-1950s—and, before that, the San Angelo Cotton Seed Oil Company, prior to Chadbourne Street crossing the river. Today, ruins from the mid-20th-century, two-story motel remain in the overgrown space, which sits in a subdivision ironically named the "Beaver Addition." The city acquired the land in 2010 and has eyed it for a convention center and hotel upgrade, pending a private-sector partner.

City leaders must decide whether to maintain the existing McNease, expand it, abandon it in favor of a new downtown hotel-conference center—or pursue both options, White said.

Mayor Tom Thompson acknowledged the Beaver property's potential but said no deals are in place. "The big thing that holds it back is parking. How are we going to find space for that?" he said, noting downtown developments often face parking challenges.

In February, the city approved an option to fund McNease improvements by raising the Hotel Occupancy Tax by two points, from 13% to 15%. The state collects 6%, with the city receiving the remaining 9%. Voters must give final approval in November 2025.