Andrew Higgins, the man behind the design and construction of the amphibious Higgins Boats that were critical to the success of World World II's D-Day invasion, is being honored with a hotel in his name. In December, the National WWII Museum, located in the business district of New Orleans, broke ground on The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center. When it opens on the National WWII Museum campus in 2019, the $66.5 million, new-build property will operate as part of Curio Collection by Hilton, the first for the brand in Louisiana.
The Art Deco–style, 230-room hotel will feature a second-floor conference center with more than 18,000 square feet of meeting space, including a boardroom and five meeting rooms bearing names related to themes of World War II. There will be three VIP suites—Roosevelt Presidential Suite, Eisenhower Suite, and the Truman Suite—in addition to eight one-bedroom suites and 25 junior suites.
The National WWII Museum, ranked by TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards as the second best museum in the world in 2017 (second to the New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art), also has a variety of spaces available for group rentals. These include the Freedom Pavilion, which can host 650 for a seated dinner with WWII aircraft hanging overhead. The profits from the Higgins Hotel & Conference Center will be distributed to the museum to build its endowment and educational mission.
Overlord boardroom at The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center opening in 2019
