Some major changes are planned for the area right around Gene Coulon Park that will add approximately 600 hotel rooms and a new convention center to the south end of Lake Washington, filling what is apparently a major need in the area.

Anchoring the area is the new Southport Hotel project, which is presently under construction on the land just southwest of the park. The  new hotel and convention center will bring 40,000-square-feet of meeting and convention space to the area, as well as about 325 hotel rooms on a 17.5-acre site right on the water.

It is designed to be a facility on par with anything Seattle has to offer, according to Renton Economic Development Director Cliff Long.

“It’s going to give Renton the ability to compete in a new market in ways we never have before,” Long said.

The Southport project, being built by SECO development, is currently in the process of getting all of its permits, though ground was broken on the 12-story hotel in October.

Long said he expects the building’s crane to go up in the next week or so. It is scheduled for completion in January 2017.

In addition to the Southport project, two more hotels are slated for the area for the area across the street from the entrance to the park, a Residence Inn by Marriott and a Hampton Inn.

The Residence Inn is set to be built on the property presently occupied by the Cowgirls Espresso stand. It is slated to have approximately 140 rooms.

The Hampton Inn is scheduled to go on the parcel just to the north of the Residence Inn. It will have approximately 110 rooms.

Both projects are dealing with steep slope issues during construction and will each also have covered, structure parking. Both hotels are in the pre-application process.

According to Long, the new hotels will go a long way toward filling a need that exists throughout the region.

“Demand has been high for lodging property,” he said.

Long said his contacts in the lodging industry say that Renton hotels were at 90 percent capacity throughout last summer. In addition, 2014 lodging tax collections in the city set a new record, besting the previous record set in 2008, the year before the recession sunk its teeth in.

Along with the buildings, improvements to the tiny intersection at the entrance to Coulon Park is also being rebuilt. It is presently being widened for the Southport project and additional work is planned as the new hotels are built.