Looking to serve students, former students and visitors from all around, the Doug Pitcock ‘49 Hotel and Conference Center opens its doors on Aug. 27 with services including food, drinks, meeting spaces and more.
The hotel had been in discussions among Texas A&M personnel long before the construction on Kyle Field began. Vice Chancellor for business affairs Phillip Ray said that the new building helps fill a space by bringing guests onto campus and allows businesses to reach current students by interacting with them at the conference center.
“I was with the university at the time, over with the division of finance, but Bowen Loftin had expressed an interest in building a conference center on campus like other universities have had across the country,” Ray said. “After Kyle Field was finished, the project came up again and the thought came up that you need a revenue generator to pay for this because you don’t want to use any student fees, you don’t want to use any money that would otherwise be going to the university. So the thought came up to use the hotel as a revenue generator.”
According to the hotel and conference center’s website, the building includes 250 guest rooms, a full restaurant and bar, 35,000 square feet of meeting space, with features available to anyone.
General manager Greg Stafford came on board with the Doug Pitcock ‘49 Hotel and Conference Center after being the general manager of the hotel and conference centers on campuses at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Stafford said when he started looking at the project, he could tell there was something special about the atmosphere the university was trying to create.
“When Benchmark [Hospitality] asked me to take a look at this project, I began to understand what Texas A&M was doing, both with the university as a whole and what was happening in College Station and what the vision of what this project was for the university,” Stafford said. “I came on board back in December and I couldn’t be more excited about my decision.”
Stafford said students and former students are an integral part of the hotel and conference center and the goal of everyone working there is to be the premier hotel and conference center that A&M deserves.
“Most of our staff are comprised of students and former students and we often talk about ‘Aggies serving Aggies’ here,” Stafford said. “With employment, internship and over time research and hospitality education opportunities, there’s a lot we want to bring to students. Brazos Proper Texas Kitchen is our three meal a day contemporary take on traditional Texas fare as a collaboration with famed Texas chef Stephan Pyles and for students 21 and over we offer craft brews and cocktails overlooking Kyle Field.”
Welcoming everyone to the hotel and conference center is Stafford’s main goal and he said the hotel itself is welcome to all and shouldn’t be seen as a crazy expensive affair.
“We will have rates from different points from the low hundred dollars range and there will be more expensive ranges for game days but we want folks to come in at reasonable expected rates,” Stafford said. “We welcome everyone and just like this university that has folks from all walks of life and all backgrounds we want to do that too and we have to be reasonable to the rest of the marketplace.”
The ribbon-cutting and opening of the hotel take place on Aug. 27 at 11 a.m and the general public will be welcomed to tour and visit the hotel until 3 p.m.