The Bulletin, Bend / Central Oregon News
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Hotelier takes it up a notch
Bend company doublesper-room construction cost for Oxford Hotel
By Jeff McDonald / The Bulletin
Published: November 11. 2007 4:00AM PSTWhen The Oxford Hotel opens in downtown Bend about a year from now, it will be the 17th in a chain of hotels owned and operated by locally based Curt Baney and family.
But this will be the first in Bend and unlike any of the other hotels in the Oxford Suites and Oxford Inn & Suites chain, said Baney, president of the Baney Hotel Group.
The family, which owned the Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City from the mid 1950s until 1960 and several small motels in Oregon through the 1980s, launched the Oxford Suites and Oxford Inn & Suites brand from its Bend headquarters in 1989.
The company is in growth mode with four new hotels under construction or planned, including The Oxford Hotel in downtown Bend, Baney said.
The company has built one to two new hotels annually for the last 10 years, Baney said. The Oxford Hotel will be entirely self-financed with the company’s cash reserves, he said, declining to release the company’s annual revenues.
With a new headquarters building under construction off U.S. Highway 20 east of Bend, the Baney Hotel Group competes against larger hotel players, including Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott, Baney said.
“We design, build and manage all of our hotels,” Baney said. “We don’t do any franchising. That’s what makes us different from our competitors, who started as a family owned business, but morphed into something different.”
The Oxford Hotel, located at the corner of Lava Road and Minnesota Avenue against the south wall of the Centennial Parking Plaza in downtown Bend, is scheduled for completion by late 2008.
The 56-room hotel will cost $12 million or about $200,000 per room to construct, twice what the typical Oxford hotel would cost, said Baney, who called the hotel the first “boutique-style” hotel in the chain.
Its features will include valet, bell hop, concierge and personalized service that will separate it from other hotels in the chain, Baney said.
“The market and the site lended itself to making it a full-service hotel,” Baney said. “We don’t think we’re on the cusp of any grand growth strategy. As long as we’re having fun, we’re going to continue doing what we’re doing.”
The rooms of the downtown hotel will range in size from 450 square feet to 850 square feet and will be priced between $150 and $300 per night, he said. It will cater to customers who are seeking a personalized level of service and luxurious accommodations, he said.
High Desert Gallery of Central Oregon, which has locations in Sisters and Redmond, will be located at street level in the hotel and a full-service restaurant also is planned, Baney said.
“The timing is right because of the parking structure, which spring-boarded development of the hotel,” Baney said. “We love the activity in downtown Bend. It’s so vibrant and active.”
For Bend’s tourism industry, the addition of the hotel will help make downtown a bigger player in Central Oregon’s $498-million-a-year tourism economy, said Doug LaPlaca, president and CEO of the Bend Visitor & Convention Bureau.
The majority of rooms in and around Bend, with the exception of the Phoenix Inn Suites and a few other motels, are on the outskirts of downtown, he said.
“This will better position Bend as a destination to attract more affluent travelers who are looking for a more upscale, boutique-type of lodging experience,” LaPlaca said. “A hotel of this type will attract travelers who might otherwise not stay in Bend.”
Local businesses, including restaurants, art galleries and salons could benefit from the increased activity downtown generated by hotel guests, LaPlaca said.
“As the vibrancy of downtown continues to evolve, the shopping and dining activities in the downtown corridor are becoming an increasingly essential part of the Central Oregon tourism experience,” he said.
The Oxford Hotel is across the street from the 117-room Phoenix Inn Suites, which does not have a full-service restaurant or valet parking.
“We view the property as a nice complement to us,” said Eric Schofield, general manager of the Phoenix Inn. “There is a need for a full-service property. It will bring more people to the area and offer the elegance that Bend needs.”
Julie Kizer, who owns Zante at the corner of Bond Street and Minnesota, and Element 909, a men’s salon that will open Nov. 20 in the former site of Double Happiness restaurant across Bond Street, said the hotel would attract clients who would likely utilize her services.
“There are often times when tourists come here — they go skiing and want to get a manicure or pedicure,” Kizer said. “Tourists and business executive types want more suite-style amenities. This will give them the same feel that they would get if they were staying in downtown Portland at the Vintage Plaza.”
Elyse Douglas, co-owner of Douglas Fine Jewelry & Design, is reserving judgment about the hotel until it opens, she said. She wants to see whether the national economic slowdown changes travel trends.
“I can’t think of a downside for downtown businesses — we all hope it brings in new customers,” she said.
The Oxford Hotel will “complete Minnesota Avenue,” said Kent Chapple, owner of Thump Coffee, who cited constant construction activity, including the Centennial Parking Plaza and the remodeling of the old Firehall into Staccato at the Firehall restaurant.
“What I like is that the hotel is going to bring Minnesota Avenue to life,” Chapple said. “There’s already more retail. It’s becoming more present in people’s minds.”
The hotel business started in the Baney family in the mid-1950s, when Curt Baney’s father, Curtis O. Baney, bought the Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City.
The elder Baney later sold the hotel in 1960 and moved his family to Eugene and opened a motel in Klamath Falls, one in Hermiston, and two in Bend — the Cimarron and Maverick motels. Neither Bend motel operates today.
Curt Baney joined the business in 1980 and the father and son put together a new chain concept with bigger rooms than motels, more amenities and a fully cooked breakfast, Curt Baney said. Curt’s brother, Kevin, is the ex-husband of Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney.
The Bend-based Oxford Suites hotel chain, which opened its first hotel in Roseville, Calif., in 1989, has grown to 16 hotels in Oregon, Washington state, Idaho and California, Baney said. The new Bend hotel will make No. 17, and three more hotels are under development in Beaverton, Klamath Falls and Sedona, Ariz., Baney said.
Jeff McDonald can be reached at 383-0323 or at jmcdonald@bendbulletin.com.
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