Developer Plans to Convert Historic Houston Building into Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Publication: Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2000 Houston Chronicle

Byline: Ralph Bivins

Jul. 11--NEW ORLEANS--The French Quarter and downtown Houston have several things in common: unbearable summer heat, a Louisiana developer called leTriomphe Property Group and ornate old buildings being transformed into Ritz-Carlton hotels.

The leTriomphe development company has almost completed its transformation of the historic Maison Blanche building on the edge of the French Quarter into a luxury hotel.

The 90-year-old Maison Blanche building will become the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans -- one of the most expensive hotels in the South. When the Ritz's 452 rooms open next month, guests will pay more than $300 per night.

"It's a gorgeous hotel," boasted Neil Juneau, president of leTriomphe Property Group, the developer of the project. "It's gonna be the premier hotel in the city of New Orleans."

The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans is the first hotel that leTriomphe has developed. But it won't be the last, company officials promise.

LeTriomphe is preparing to tackle a similar feat in Houston, transforming the historic Texaco building downtown into the Ritz-Carlton Houston hotel.

"About a year after we started on (the...

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