WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Lots of progress is being made on the new hotel and convention center, a project that city leaders are hoping will attract more visitors to the city, ultimately boosting the local economy.

Assistant City Manager Blake Juracek said even with an increase in the price of several building materials, the construction crews have been working round the clock and said the massive $50 million project is nearing completion.

“We have monthly meetings and right now they’re still on pace for that. We’re still about three months out so you never know, but we’re excited,” Juracek said.

The new Delta Hotel and Convention Center will consist of 200 rooms, an on-site bar and lounge, and even a swimming pool.

Juracek said once the center is open, residents should see a big spike in foot traffic around the downtown area.

“We hope it brings a lot more conventions. There’s a lot of conventions that if you do not have a full-service hotel on-site with your facilities like the MPEC and Exhibit Hall and stuff you can’t get those conferences. So we hope to have a full-service hotel, we’ll be able to keep our Exhibit Hall and Kay Yeager Coliseum for it more often,” Juracek said.

Not only could the new center stimulate the economy, but it’s also going to provide roughly 250 to 300 jobs in the area. And as far as the parking space that the center is now taking up new spots have been added.

“We added about 140 parking spots or places on the other side of Burnett. We put in a new parking lot over there so that’ll help augment some of the parking that the hotel is taking up,” Juracek said.

So with just about every box checked off for this project, once doors open we’ll see what kind of impact it has on our community.

Juracek is expecting the entire project to be complete and the facility to be open by August 2023, just in time for Hottern’ Hell Hundred.