The Bulletin, Bend / Central Oregon News
FEBRUARY 09, 2010 12:42 PM
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The new Sleep Inn hotel, seen at left, will have 75 rooms. It will be connected by a sky-bridge to a restaurant and conference and events center, at right. The restaurant will feature rooftop dining.
Courtesy Jivanjee Architect
Hotel planned in north Redmond
Developers take advantage of growth in area off highway by new Wal-Mart
By Jeff McDonald / The Bulletin
Published: July 29. 2007 4:00AM PSTREDMOND — A local group plans to build a $9 million hotel and restaurant complex on the city’s north end, buoyed by prospects of commercial development in the area and the city’s demand for more lodging space.
The 30,000-square-foot, 75-room Sleep Inn of Redmond will feature an indoor pool and pedestrian sky-bridge linking it to an 8,000-square-foot building containing a restaurant, and conference and events center, said Ron Lusk, project manager and partner in North Redmond Properties LLC.
The restaurant, which will include rooftop dining, will be operated by the owners of the downtown Canyons Restaurant, which will either move to the new location or open a second restaurant with a new concept, Lusk said. One of the restaurant’s owners is a partner in the development group and deferred to Lusk for comments on the project.
The hotel will be located across U.S. Highway 97 from several commercial projects that are under way, including the Wal-Mart Supercenter, which is expected to open in September, and just south of The Home Depot, Lusk said. The Highway 97 reroute also will take auto traffic off the highway about a half-mile north of the hotel, creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment that will help both the city’s north end and downtown, Lusk said.
“You’re going to see a lot of national retailers at the north end of Redmond for no other reasons than the Wal-Mart will bring a ton of foot traffic in the area,” Lusk said.
North Redmond Properties will hire a hotel-management firm to operate the Sleep Inn as a franchise of Silver Spring, Md.-based Choice Hotels International Inc., Lusk said. The branding allows the hotel to utilize a centralized reservation system and national advertising to boost sales, Lusk said.
“There are a lot of advantages to going with the brand name,” he said. “Everything is standardized down to the colors and the sign. Everything will be brand new. It will be all in place.”
The hotel will open by June 2008, he said.
The prospect of Redmond’s first nationally branded new hotel on the north end excited Leda Mudge, manager of Kayo’s Roadhouse restaurant in Redmond, which is located about a mile south of the planned hotel.
“I think it will be very good for business because we get a lot of customers from Comfort Suites (to the south) and this will be at the north end of town,” she said. “It will be very beneficial to us.”
Lusk said projections for north Redmond convinced his group to move forward.
“We did a study on this site, and the results showed us that if we didn’t build a hotel at the north end, we would be foolish,” Lusk said. “It’s in the cross hairs of north end’s growth.”
Passenger growth at Redmond Airport and increasing activity at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center also will fuel continued demand for lodging in the area, said Alana Audette, president and CEO of the Central Oregon Visitors Association.
Redmond’s tourism niche is becoming a larger part of Central Oregon’s $498 million-a-year tourism economy, Audette said.
“We certainly recognize Redmond as one of the fastest-growing areas of Central Oregon,” Audette said. “As the fairgrounds and airport grow, we’ll see more demand for room nights. I see a very bright future for Redmond.”
The city’s room-tax revenues reflect the visitor trend.
Redmond collected $485,000 for the 2006-07 fiscal year, which started July 1, 2006, and ended June 30. That was up from $463,000 the city collected in fiscal 2005-06 and $400,500 collected in fiscal 2004-05, said Chris Earnest, the city’s finance director.
Business has been good for the city’s hotels this year, especially this summer, when most are checking in full.
The Best Western Rama Inn, located south of downtown off U.S. Highway 97 and Southwest 17th Place, is full every night during the summer and averages between 70 percent and 75 percent occupancy throughout the year, said Sharon Birdwell, general manager.
The hotel will complete a 24-room expansion by the end of August to accommodate expected growth. The hotel also will renovate its existing 49 rooms by midsummer, Birdwell said.
“There’s definitely demand for more rooms in Redmond,” Birdwell said. “Everybody’s going to get their share of the pie, definitely.”
Comfort Suites, also a Choice Hotels International brand, operates almost at full capacity during the peak summer months and does solid business throughout the rest of the year, said Rachel Winkler, sales and marketing director at the hotel.
“Redmond needs more hotels and meeting space,” Winkler said. “This will be good for Redmond.”
Jeff McDonald can be reached at 383-0323 or at jmcdonald@bendbulletin.com.
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