Located in West Texas, the City of Abilene and the Abilene Industrial Foundation had previously commissioned a City-wide economic development plan that identified the Center City as a major asset that could be strategically leveraged to better position Abilene to attract employers. Disappointed by a lack of interest from investors in the downtown, the City and Foundation engaged Gossman Group to help the community delineate a vision for the Texas’ town’s historic downtown and identify catalytic projects to attract investment. Out of this planning process, one such project, a new hotel adjacent to the City’s existing convention center was completely reimagined as the anchor to a new festival district. A new Request for Proposals, crafted by Craig Gossman, was issued that attracted ten proposals. Garfield Investments out of Dallas, TX has been identified as the developer.