The bustling city of Houston is well-known for its rich culture. Nicknamed the “Culinary Capital of the South” for its diverse cuisines and restaurants, and “Space City,” for being home to NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, it is also home to the Theater District, Museum District, and the Texas Medical Center. With much to boast, Houston fills with visitors year-round, making the hotel market in Houston boom.
Below is a list of Houston’s best contractors in the hospitality industry, responsible for some of the best choices in crafting the busy city’s hospitality landscape. To make the list, we took into consideration each firm’s hospitality portfolio in and around Houston, as well as their years of experience building for the industry and their range of work–from renovations to new design-build projects.
Case & Associates General Contractors
6315 Skyline Drive, Houston, TX 77057
Specializing in hospitality building and renovation, Case & Associates is a close-knit team of experienced hotel construction specialists. The team has worked with both major hotel chains and boutique hotels nationwide in its over three decades in the business, with a wide range of projects. Under the leadership of Principal Allen Case, who is hands-on in the pre-construction, design development and estimating phases, the firm has completed many projects that result in client satisfaction.
The firm’s projects in its homebase of Houston include the full remodel of the Embassy Suites Energy Corridor in 2021. Case gave business professionals coming through the city a warm welcome in the bright wood walls of the hotel’s lobby and public spaces, as well as a calming atmosphere in the gray and white motif of its 216 guest rooms. The remodel also covered the Oasis Restaurant & Bar, as well as the meeting rooms and ballrooms. Case was also involved in the $9-million-dollar transformation of the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Downtown into what is now the C. Baldwin Hotel, renovating its 354 guest rooms, as well as the renovation of the lobby and lounge areas of the Magnolia Hotel at Houston’s Historic District.
E.E. Reed Construction, L.P.
333 Commerce Green Boulevard, Sugar Land, TX 77478
Second generation builder Mark Reed has sat as president of E.E. Reed Construction, L.P. since 2012. His father E.E. “Gene” Reed is the current CEO and also founded the company in 1977 after 17 years in the construction business. Following in his footsteps, Mark grew with experience in every facet of the trade, working as a laborer, carpenter and field engineer before formally joining the company in 1997 after earning his degree in Construction Science from Texas A&M University. As true Texas natives, their practice is headquartered in Sugar Land, with four other offices across the U.S., and both of them are members of the Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc. of Greater Houston.
Amongst their completed hospitality projects is the Embassy Suites Park 10, in West Houston, a 207,513 square foot, 15-story, 208-room full service hotel, which features a full service kitchen and restaurant, among other meeting spaces, and an indoor swimming pool. The hotel has a classic and elegant finish both on its exterior and inside. They have also worked on the trendier Home2Suites in the Energy Corridor, an 83,574 square foot, five-story structure housing 142 rooms, a breakfast area, fitness center, meeting rooms, and an outdoor pool. Its sister hotel is the firm’s current project: the Home2Suites Galleria is a 74,635 square foot, 112-room structure which will have a 48,693 square foot, 4-story, 112-car cast-in-place parking garage.
JE Dunn Construction
10350 Richmond Ave. #900, Houston, TX 77042
Operating out of 23 offices across the U.S., JE Dunn Construction has been a leader in the commercial construction industry since 1924. This family and employee-owned company is currently operated by the third generation of founder John Ernest Dunn’s family alongside President and CEO Gordon Lansford. Under their leadership, it has been ranked 22nd in Engineering News-Record’s 2019 Top 400 Contractors list.
Among their hospitality projects is The Westin at The Woodlands, a 220,000 square foot, 302-room, 4-star luxury hotel overlooking the Woodlands Waterway, which features 24,000 square feet of meeting space, a second floor infinity pool and lounge with direct access to the fountains at Waterway Square, a 150-seat restaurant, spa services, a WestinWORKOUT® Gear Lending Program fitness center, full service Starbucks, and even a private helicopter service. JE Dunn also built the Aloft Hotel by theGalleria, a project which involved the demolition of an existing parking structure, transforming the space into a 64,325-square-foot, five-story, 152-room hotel on top of a five-story parking garage. The first floor of the parking structure shares its space with the hotel’s main lobby area, back-of-house service areas, pool, bar, and workout area.
W.S. Bellows Construction Corporation
1906 Afton Street, Houston, TX 77055
For over 100 years, W.S. Bellows Construction Corporation has not just built structures that have become part of Houston’s history as well as its skyline, but has also forged strong relationships across Texas and the Southwest through its commitment to the highest quality of work, safety and integrity. The Houstonian Hotel lies within a high-end luxury club in the Galleria district, and has become a favorite place for company meetings and small conventions because of its wide range of amenities amidst the 18-acre lush, wooded property. They also built The Lancaster Hotel, formerly The Auditorium Hotel, in 1926, an Italian renaissance-style 12-story, 93-room boutique hotel downtown, which was designated as a Houston Landmark in 1984.
Other hotels in their portfolio are the 401-foot, 30-story, 947-room Hyatt Regency, Houston’s tallest and first full atrium hotel, topped by a revolving restaurant, the 805,000 square foot, 399-room Four Seasons Hotel. AsHouston’s first AAA Diamond Hotel, it houses apartments for lease alongside standard hotel rooms and suites, has 18,000 square feet of meeting space, and a 4,800 square foot ballroom. Most notably, it houses the Ronald McDonald House, a 3-story, 50-bedroom facility serving as a home away from home for families with critically ill children undergoing treatment at Texas Medical Center.
The Beck Group
1601 Elm Street Suite 2800, Dallas, TX 75201
Building and designing with class across the U.S. for over a century, The Beck Group has created, expanded and reimagined hotels, resorts and spas in the Houston, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth areas. Their portfolio includes the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver-certified Renaissance Dallas Hotel ballroom addition project, the Johnson/Burgee Architects Rosewood Crescent collaboration, and, most notably, the must-see Hyatt Regency Dallas and infamous Dallas-skyline Reunion Tower, originally built in 1978.
Founded in 1912 by Henry C. Beck, Sr., Henry “Peter” C. Beck III currently sits as chairman of the company, and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) Fred Perpall is currently the helm as CEO. Reflecting the company’s century of accomplishments, Beck has been hailed among Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal’s U.S. Best Managed Companies for their excellence in strategy, execution, culture and financials.
One of the firm’s most notable accomplishments to date is the Le Meridien Houston, a 215,000 square foot transformation of the historic mid-century Melrose Building office space built in 1952. Today, it stands proudly as Houston’s oldest modern skyscraper. The hotel still references the ‘50s aesthetics, featuring contemporary lighting and finishes across its 21 stories, with 225 guest rooms, new restaurant and bar concepts, conference rooms, and meeting spaces. The project was designed by AIA and LEED Accredited Professional Principal Architect Bryan Jones and led by LEED AP Director of Preconstruction Carter Vecera of Beck’s Austin office.
Arch-Con Corporation
1335 W. Gray St #210, Houston, TX 77019
A week before Arch-Con corporation’s Courtyard Marriott project could open in 2017, Hurricane Havey hit, and so the project quickly opened up instead to host first responders. Since then, Arch-Con Corporation has put this same dynamism into building in a wide variety of styles for diverse markets, whether young, on-the-go business travelers or large corporations that need ample space for conferences.
The rest of the firm’s portfolio displays several award-winning historic restoration projects involving the adaptive reuse of buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places into up-to-date hospitality structures. One of these is the 110-year-old Jesse Jones’ Gulf Oil building, a 1960s mid-century modern structure, which has been transformed into the AC Hotel in Downtown Houston, with 195 guest rooms, a large workout room, a kitchen, restaurant, and the Zoe Ballroom, formerly the Zoe Theater. The Zoe Ballroom retains the classic barrel vaulted ceiling of the original structure, and can presently accommodate 350 people. Another project to note is the Aloft Houston Downtown, which was the former headquarters of Stowers Furniture, built in 1913. It now houses 173 rooms over its 119,981 square feet, featuring a 12,000 square foot terrace with rooftop pool. Today, Arch-Con is building the dual brand 187,246 square foot, 10-story, 296-guest-room Hilton Garden Inn/Home2 Suites within Texas Medical Center.
DPR Construction
3200 Southwest Freeway, Suite 1550, Houston, TX 77027
Ranking among the top 50 general contractors in the country since 1997, DPR Construction has been building staple hotels alongside the best architects nationwide for 30 years. After Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston in 2017, DPR was entrusted to rebuild the Omni Houston Hotel in Galleria. DPR handled the renovation of 40,000 square feet of its common spaces, including three ballrooms, two boardrooms, 26 reception and conference rooms, as well as Black Swan Restaurant & Night Club, Mokara Spa & Salon, and the Common Color retail area. The same sense of luxurious elegance runs through each space for its function, whether catering to large formal gatherings, relaxed casual lounging, or high-level corporate meetings. Floodwater mitigation measures were also implemented throughout the site.
After this successful repair, a similar restoration of its sister hotel in Westside was also awarded to DPR, all of which was done while it remained at full capacity, revamping 50,000 square feet of the atrium lobby, including the reception and sitting area, as well as several dining areas, and the new grab-and-go Over the Counter market. The result was a good blending of the different spaces, which, while unified in their overall palette of earthy tones, displayed a pleasant variety in atmosphere, mimicking a small community — luxurious, but still like a home away from home. DPR Houston has also been awarded the Baytown Hotel and Conroe Hotel and Convention Center projects.
