Oct. 20–For 10 months, as builders worked to construct Greeley’s first hotel in seven years, their every move was being watched.
People looking for ready housing for the growing contingent of oil field workers were showing up regularly at the up-and-coming Candalwood Suites, 3530 29th St. in Greeley.
“Our general manager over there, he said, ‘I have some of these folks stalking me every day. When are you opening? Here’s my phone number.’ So we did have some companies definitely looking,” said Renee von Weiland, vice president of operations at Spirit Hospitality in Fort Collins, which opened the 83-room, extended-stay hotel Sept. 12, the day after the area flooded, displacing hundreds of northern Colorado residents.
Through September, because of the flooding, the Candalwood ran at 98.7 percent occupancy, and so far through October, the month-old hotel has sat squarely at 95 percent occupancy, von Weiland said.
“I’d say we’ve done triple the business that we had projected, just in the month of September,” she said of the company’s second Greeley hotel.
Their first was the Hampton Inn in 2006.
“Oil and gas workers are starting to fill those. And there is so much corporate business in Greeley. It’s such a growing community. … Business is just booming.”
The Rocky Mountain Lodging Report shows Greeley’s occupancy rate at 90 percent through September, with only the Loveland market coming close at 84.2 percent. Fort Collins’ rate also was high at 67.8 percent.
But they’re not the only ones ready to fill the high market demand.
David Amin is working to get his 85-room Homewood Suites project off the ground in the Centerplace shopping center, and construction is expected to begin in January. The 75,000-square-foot project is a good $13 million investment in Greeley, Amin said.
On the other side of Interstate 25, developer McWhinney last week announced a 104-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel it will help develop on the northeast corner of the I-25 and U.S. 34 interchange.
Earlier this month, the Fort Lupton City Council approved a new hotel for their area, a 110-room Fairfield Inn on Colo. 52 across from Safeway. The city, about 20 miles south of Greeley, hadn’t had a new hotel built in at least two decades, said Mayor Tommy Holton.
He said there is no doubt the surge in oil and gas helped the developer pull the trigger on the hotel. Fort Lupton, which has only one large hotel now, has become the home to an expanded Halliburton facility, as well as some other oil and gas support companies that have brought new employees to the area.
“We’ve got some other (potential developers) kind of poking around,” Holton said. “There’s just no place to stay. There’s no housing.”
Construction will begin next year.
The Fort Lupton hotel, Holton hopes, will kick off more retail and restaurant development in the area, as it bought an oversize parcel to build extra. The hotel will sit on three acres, with an adjacent nine acres ready for development.
Back in Greeley, city officials and a developer are active in their talks for a development agreement for a hotel and convention center downtown.
Becky Safarik, assistant city manager, said talks should continue for another four to six months before all details, including financing, are ironed out.
Spirit Hospitality also has two more hotel projects emerging: one in Fort Collins and one in Cheyenne.
Bob Benton, who helps compile the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report, said areas where the energy industry is strong have a healthy hotel market.
“The hotel industry in general is very healthy, and it has been improving and appears to continue to be improving, not just in energy, but throughout Colorado,” Benton said. “Energy activity is a long-term industry, and what we see, not just in Colorado, but other markets we evaluate, the hotel markets in energy locations are very strong.”
He added, “So there’s going to be new hotels coming to all parts of the state. The energy market does generate the need for overnight lodging, so we’ll likely see continued hotel development in those areas.”
