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A Columbia businessman who owns the popular Broadway Hotel in downtown Columbia aims to begin construction in the next 30 days on the hotel’s second tower.
David Parmley tells 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable” that he’s been working on the second tower project for five years. He tells listeners that it will also provide much needed meeting space.
“The new tower is going to be the same height as the first one. It’s directly north, a small parcel, about a quarter acre. It will have 80 guest rooms but more importantly we’re adding about three times more meeting space than we have right now. Right now we only have about 3,500 square feet of meeting space,” Mr. Parmlee says.
Mr. Parmlee says the second tower will include walkways on the fourth and eighth floors, connecting the two towers. He predicts that the second tower’s top floor will be popular.
“But the main feature is we’re going to put in is that large ballroom on the top floor on the 8th floor, kind of like the Rooftop bar. It will seat 300-plus, which we don’t have now. Right now, we can max out around 120 for a banquet or a wedding. And most weddings, they are thinking 200 people or so,” says Parmlee.
The Broadway Hotel downtown is a Doubletree by Hilton. The hotel website describes the Roof as “Columbia’s exclusive destination to relax or be entertained.” Mr. Parmley hopes to open the hotel’s second tower by the end of 2024.
Parmlee also owns the Hampton Inn and Suites near Faurot Field. He tells listeners that he modeled the Broadway after a popular hotel in Chicago.
“I really didn’t want to build a cookie-cutter Doubletree for downtown Columbia because downtown is so unique. I found out that there was a hotel in Chicago called the Wit, a Doubletree by Hilton, Rooftop bar and really cool designs. So I called Hilton and said hey, can I do something like that for Columbia and they said yeah probably. I said will I have to follow color scheme A, B or C? No you can do what you want. I said good,” says Parmlee.
The second tower will be built just north of the current tower, just west of the Short street garage. He also addressed inflation issues on the show, telling “Roundtable” host Parry that steel prices have increased by 110 percent in the past two years. Click here to listen to the full interview.
