Cain Hall could soon be torn down to make room for a hotel.
The building holds a number of different offices, including Student Counseling Service and Disability Services. A proposal meeting will be held Thursday afternoon to hear pre-proposals from several developers.
The request for proposal calls for a project that will include demolishing Cain Hall and replacing it with a hotel with approximately 150 beds, a 1,000-space parking structure and a conference center. The building would be connected to the Kyle Field site with a pedestrian bridge.
Ned Williams, director of real estate development for the Texas A&M University System, said the university hopes to address a variety of issues that come with the increased population.
“That hotel will serve yet another need — it will be nice on game day, but we also have a lot of visiting faculty and a lot of people that will be able to use it,” Williams said.
While the University will take these proposals into consideration, Steve Moore, vice chancellor for marketing and communications, said nothing is confirmed.
“The big thing is, none of this is definite, this is a process we go through on all things,” Moore said.
Shane Hinckley, assistant vice president of business development, said any construction project goes through a proposal process.
“It is a standard procedure we go through, to see what the possibilities are,” Hinckley said. “We are under no obligations to take them or enter in to contracts. If we like something we very well could proceed down that path. It is very exploratory and non-binding.”
Another concern is the relocation process for the offices within Cain Hall. Williams said the university will work to determine the best course of action, but said employees seem excited about the upcoming possibilities.
If the system were to approve one of the companies to build on the land, the project would fall under a public-private partnership. Williams said the university benefits from such a partnership, a different approach to the way these projects are regularly done.
“We don’t incur any debt and we don’t saddle ourselves with a big burden,” Williams said. “You build it, you use your money to do it, but you do it on our land. So we keep the land and they build the buildings, and they pay us a lease payment for using our land, so it is a win-win for everybody.”