CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The City Council is expected on Tuesday to approve agreements that will put the DoubleTree by Hilton name on the city-owned downtown hotel and turn management over to Hilton of the hotel, the U.S. Cellular Center arena attached to it and the new convention center now under construction next door.

The council approval will close a deal with Hilton that the council had put in motion with votes in May and July.

John Frew, the construction manager on the city’s Convention Complex and hotel projects, on Monday called the pending agreement with DoubleTree Management LLC, a subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide Management Services, a “game-changer” for the city and one that should ensure that the hotel and the Convention Complex with convention center and arena succeed.

“Of all the decisions we’re going to make, none is more important than this one,” said Frew, a principal with FrewNations Group LLC. “The reason why I say this is a game-changer is because this is the right decision. This is in the city’s best interest.”

Frew said the financial projections built into the Hilton agreement foresee that the city will be able to generate sufficient revenue from the hotel to cover the debt that the city is incurring to renovate the hotel and at the same time help cover operating costs for the new convention center.

“It will only do that if you have the right rate design and the right operator. I believe we do,” he said.

Frew said a hotel consultant for the city believes the city can obtain a 64-percent occupancy rate in the renovated hotel while Hilton believes the rate can be as high as 69 percent. Frew said the target room price will be $10 lower than the Cedar Rapids Marriott on Collins Road NE. The plan for the city’s downtown hotel also now calls for 269 rooms, down from the hotel’s original 275 rooms but nine more rooms than had been projected for the renovated hotel, he said.

At the same time, Frew reported that the price tag for the hotel renovation has been climbing for two reasons — the need to make modifications to the 30-plus-year-old hotel to meet the Hilton standards; and the need to make more-than-expected improvements to the hotel’s basic mechanical and electrical systems to meet building and safety codes.

“That building was a fire trap,” Frew said. “Just to bring it up to code constitutes substantially more (in cost).”

The city had put the cost of renovation with purchase price — the city bought the hotel earlier this year from its creditors for $3.2 million and closed it for renovation — at about $25 million, and Frew on Monday said that figure is now $30 million at a minimum. Still, hotel revenue is expected to be sufficient to cover the debt payments, he said.

Mayor Ron Corbett on Monday predicted that council members will endorse the Hilton agreements on Tuesday evening.

“Our overarching principle has been that the hotel (renovation and operation) had to pay for itself,” Corbett said. “Having someone like Hilton in there enhances the profitability of the hotel to where it actually makes a little money that can help subsidize the convention center operation.”

Corbett said the city has always understood that the convention center would attract people to the city but would not make a profit.

Frew said the financial projections for the Convention Complex with new convention center and renovated arena also envision that city will need to steer a portion of the revenue from the city’s hotel-motel tax to the Convention Complex as the city has done historically with the arena.

The arena is expected to be ready for reopening in the fall of 2012 while the convention center and hotel will open in the spring of 2013, Frew said.

Frew said any naming rights for the arena and convention center will go to pay off hotel debt.

One possibility is that the city will see a DoubleTree by Hilton at the U.S. Cellular Center, he said.