The Hotel Santa Rita project is slated to be a 135-room, full-service hotel that will continue the revitalization of downtown Midland. It will be one of the centerpieces of a downtown that has seen significant positive change since horizontal drilling changed the trajectory of the Permian Basin almost two decades ago.
This project will provide a much-needed investment in downtown hospitality that Midland has lacked for years. It will be an investment that will help all downtown businesses both retain existing customers and attract new customers, local or otherwise.
As investors and business travelers have returned to Midland after a few years away because of the travel restrictions that came along with the last downturn, I have found that fewer and fewer of them are staying downtown due to the lack of quality hotel options. At Diamondback, we have only held one board meeting in Midland, the company’s headquarters, due to a lack of available hotel and conference space. This harms legacy local businesses that have been downtown staples for years, robbing them of the revenue from business travelers who are big spenders when they come to town. A quality downtown hotel option will change this for us and many other Midland-based companies, ensuring Midland gets the attention it deserves from the global investment community.
The hotel will create over 100 jobs for the community and will be funded by local investors, including the large companies that call Midland home. This support will drive the economic success and durability of the project, ensuring our young and dynamic demographic in Midland has a vibrant downtown to be proud of for years to come.
Midland has solidified its position as the capital of the oil industry in the United States, a position we don’t plan on giving up any time soon. The Hotel Santa Rita is a project that will highlight our position of strength as a community and industry for decades to come. Contact the mayor and city council members and urge their support for Hotel Santa Rita.
Kaes Van’t Hof is president and chief financial officer for Diamondback Energy