Coast Coliseum and Convention Center hotel

Today, Harrison County supervisors approved plans to start the construction of a hotel at the Coast Coliseum and Convention Center.

Coast Coliseum Executive Director Matt McDonnell tells News 25 he’s worked on bringing a convention center hotel since Hurricane Katrina. The coliseum commission will lease developers the 6.57 acres of land along U.S. 90 just southwest of the Coliseum and adjacent to Oakmont Place Subdivision for 99 years.

They will build a hotel with 300 to 350 rooms, a restaurant and lounge, a climate controlled walkway to the coliseum, and sidewalks from the hotel to the beach. “What a hotel really will allow us to do is get more business because there are so many conventions out there that requires a headquarters hotel. It’ll bring more people to South Mississippi,” said McDonnell.

McDonnell hopes construction on the new hotel will begin in the next six months.