By John Egan

With its debut set for November 2016, the soon-to-be-gleaming Marriott Marquis Houston is rising in the midst of the Houston Convention District. The $355 million, 29-story hotel, connected to the George R. Brown Convention Center, will feature 1,000 guest rooms and 100,000 square feet of event space.

"When the Marriott Marquis opens its doors in 2016, it will increase the hotel room capacity in downtown Houston by 20 percent and will give the George R. Brown Convention Center tandem hotels bookended at each end of our building," said Dawn Ullrich, president and CEO of Houston First Corp. "This will make our city exponentially more attractive to the largest and most prestigious conferences and trade shows in the world."

The 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston, which opened in 2003, is the other half of that hotel tandem.

Ric Campo, chairman of Houston First, said the Marriott Marquis will enable Houston to host more major events, such as the 2017 Super Bowl.

"This is a vitally important tool in our tool belt and one that opens up an entirely new universe of mega-conventions for which we can now be competitive," Campo said.

As we eagerly await the Marriott Marquis opening its doors, we invite you to peruse these 19 details about the hotel.

1. Number of double-queen-bed rooms: 600

2. Number of king-bed rooms: 360
3. Number of guest suites: 40
4. Size of ballroom: 39,000 square feet
5. Capacity of largest event space: 4,400
6. Number of event rooms: 44
7. Number of restaurants and bars: 6
8. Amount of ground-floor retail space: 20,000 square feet
9. Date of groundbreaking: April 11, 2014
10. Scheduled opening date: Sept. 1, 2016
11. Developers: RIDA Development Corp. and Houston First Corp.
12. General contractors: Balfour Beatty Construction and WELBRO Building Corp.
13. Lead architect: Morris Architects
14. Interior designer: Looney & Associates
15. Structural engineer: Ensight Haynes Whaley
16. Civil engineer: Bury
17. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer: Blum/DBR
18. Number of construction jobs being generated by the project: 2,200
19. Number of permanent jobs being generated by the hotel: 700 to 800

Learn more about planning your next meeting or event in Houston at www.visithoustontexas.com/meetings/