Proposal for New Hotel Adjacent to Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville

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Wednesday, January 8, 2020, at the Mandeville community meeting, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser will address the proposal to build a 150-room hotel and conference center on land which is located next to Fontainebleau State Park. He will address Northshore residents at the Paul R. Spitzfaden Community Center and answer any questions or concerns.

A hand full of local leaders and residents are concerned with how the hotel might affect the environment. They also question the location because of other hotels struggling in the area such as The Clarion Inn & Suites Conference Center which closed its doors in May 2019.

A Tennessee hospitality consulting firm, Pinkowski & Co., conducted a $28,000 feasibility study for the St. Tammany Parish Tourist and Convention Commission. In the study, they concluded that the new hotel and conference center will generate close to $2 million annually in cash flow immediately if opened by January 1, 2021. They also projected it could possibly bring in almost $2.3 million by 2025.

The study concluded that the hotel has a full-service restaurant and lounge, an around-the-clock fitness center, retail outlets and an outdoor event space all encompassed by a hotel theme that tells the story of the local culture.

Although the report, which Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser requested, did list nine advantages such as location near retail stores, restaurants, Pelican Park and the Castine Center it went on to state “poor performance of the local lodging market” and “potential price sensitivity of demand in the local market” as two disadvantages in constructing the hotel.

Nungesser believes that the partnership between state parks and private companies is a means to bring funds in to support state park’s upkeep and repairs.

Fontainebleau State Park currently brings in approximately $1.3 million annually and it is one of the few Lousiana state parks that is self-supporting. The state park costs around $1.2 million annually and includes rental campsites, lodges and cabins that sit along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain.

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