Courtesy: Thomas Perumean | News Source: wwl.radio.com

As city officials wrestle with the collapsed the Hard Rock Hotel project, a new hotel is approved.  This new 240 room hotel is set to be built right across the street from the Hard Rock.  

The project will be reach higher into the sky than the Hard Rock, which got a variance to be built as tall as it was.  And, daringly, this new hotel will be built over the top of the Loew's State Theater.  

It's just one of a total 3,000 rooms being added to New Orleans inventory of 40,000 rooms regionwide.  

Last night, a public meeting was held at Morial Convention Center to public input on the proposed 1,200 room hotel development to be connected to the convention center.  

"The Convention Center hotel that's being planned will be what our competition has done and that is attach a hotel to the convention facility," Tourism and Marketing President Mark Romig says.  "And making it a primary convention center hotel that will be good for groups, associations and large conventions that come into the city."

As hotel development continues, the question arises:  When is enough, enough?  We asked Romig, "We're still in a position of being able to work with additional rooms in our inventory for the city."

"New hotels that are on the horizon,' Romig says.  "Those that are in planning, as well as those that are currently in construction, will do well as we continue to market the city to visitors around the world."

Many of the new hotels are aimed at the specific clientele wanting more individual features and higher luxury in smaller more intimate settings.  In New Orleans this means converting many of the small storefront and office buildings lining Canal Street and populating the Warehouse District are prime candidates for conversion into boutique hotels.  

It doesn't matter how many hotel room there are, the only challenge is to keep filling them.