Convention Center Work Clears the Weekday Calendar
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas entered a phased $3.8-billion redevelopment in 2025. The reduced operation cut the citywide meeting and convention segment from that year. Kathleen Donahue, senior managing director and Dallas practice leader at HVS, wrote the analysis. HVS published it on 6 October 2026.
Fewer citywide events removed the compression that large conventions generate. Downtown hotels lean on the convention center for weekday occupancy. The market also carries corporate and sports relocations out of Downtown, plus continued growth in Uptown.
The CoStar Set Behind the Numbers
HVS reviewed a CoStar set of 65 hotels across the CBD, Uptown, Market Center and Love Field submarkets. The set covers approximately 18,100 rooms at the upscale tier and above. Three of the hotels carry more than 1,000 rooms each.
Occupancy for the set registered in the high 60s from 2014 through 2019. It settled in the mid-60s after the pandemic and declined modestly to the low 60s in 2025.
Donahue writes that these 65 hotels carried the heaviest load from the fall in citywide event volume, against the Dallas market as a whole.
FIFA Pricing Rebuilds the Rate Story
ADR held positive overall in 2025 despite some monthly contractions. DFW hosted nine matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, and one of those was a semi-final. The KBHCCD served as an International Broadcast Center for the tournament.
ADR eroded through the first four months of 2026 and held stable in May. June and July then recorded increases of approximately 25 percent in each month. Dynamic pricing around each match day drove those gains. HVS expects the June and July surge to carry this set to a positive year-end ADR for 2026.
Occupancy Until the 2030 Reopening
The KBHCCD is not scheduled to fully reopen until 2030. HVS projects slow occupancy growth through the intervening years on the scarcity of large citywide events it expects through 2030. After the 2030 debut, HVS projects the mid-to-high 60s for this Downtown Dallas subset in 2031.
One-time events continue to contribute. HVS names the 2026 Republican Midterm Convention, held in September 2026, as one example.
The Day-Room Shelf Downtown
A daytime or hourly booking sells part of a room-day whose payroll, utilities and administrative cost are committed first. The Dallas day-use shelf read 29 hotels on 14 October 2026, on the dayuse.com city page the gate read. Rates ran from US$61.00 to US$259.00 a room.
The cards sit across Downtown, Old East Dallas, Oak Lawn, the Design District, Las Colinas, Love Field, Duncanville, DeSoto, Farmers Branch and the northern and northwest corridors. Twenty of the 29 cards carry three stars, six carry four and one carries five. The earliest booking window opens at 6:00 and the latest closes at 23:00.
The HVS review carries no day-use revenue line for the 65-hotel set. It states no hourly rate, no daytime occupancy and no day-use share of the room revenue it tracks.
Office Vacancy Becomes Hotel Supply
AT&T and Fifth Third Bancorp are expected to move their headquarters operations out of the city's core by the end of 2028. Comerica Bank Tower is planned for conversion primarily into residential and hotel space, a change that eliminates more than half of its office space. Bank of America Plaza is slated for reconfiguration as a mixed-use hub, with several office floors converted into a luxury hotel.
New corporate development concentrates in Uptown. Goldman Sachs is building a $500-million campus in the Victory Park and North End area, scheduled to open in 2028. Morgan Stanley selected Dallas for a US operational hub, an estimated $1.33-billion high-rise at 2401 McKinney Avenue. The Texas Stock Exchange launched in July 2026, and the financial cluster around it carries the name Y'all Street.
Venues, Leisure and Future Supply
American Airlines Center will host the Dallas Wings starting in 2027. The arena has generated room nights through sports events, concerts and other bookings for years. The Dallas Mavericks and the Stars plan separate arenas elsewhere in the city, and both plan to leave the 25-year-old AA Center in the coming years. That departure leaves the facility's future uncertain.
The Neiman Marcus flagship store in Downtown Dallas closed permanently at the end of September 2026. Leisure demand holds in the Arts District, Uptown and Turtle Creek. The Klyde Warren Park expansion will extend the park nearly two acres west and cover the final recessed portion of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
Two large projects sit in the pipeline. Developer Ray Washburne has proposed an $800-million, 30-story convention hotel with about 1,000 rooms near the KBHCCD. Therme Group has proposed an $850-million spa and waterpark wellness resort on 24 acres along the Trinity River. The Austria-based company's first US location carries a target opening of 2031.
Airport Investment and the Longer Outlook
DFW Airport's $9-billion DFW Forward expansion and Love Field's $2.5-billion Love Field Expansion Airport Program support the long-term demand case HVS sets out. The market moves through near-term volatility, and HVS expects Downtown Dallas to emerge from the period on a wider demand base.