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Trumbull’s Hotel Market Grows Along 2 Strips
NILES, Ohio -- More hotel space may be going up along the Route 46 corridor in Niles and Howland, but Liberty Township remains a vibrant location for the hospitality industry in Trumbull County, business and political leaders say.
At the Eastwood Mall Complex here, construction is well under way on the 103-suite Residence Inn by Marriott hotel and banquet hall designed to seat 1,000 guests. It will be attached to the mall itself, says Joe Bell, a spokesman for the mall complex and the Cafaro Co., which owns it.
Just a few miles away, in Liberty Township, where the Interstate 80 on-ramp and exit to Belmont Avenue has spawned a hospitality industry that represents a core of the township’s revenue base, an announcement was made a few weeks ago about a $10 million Comfort Suites and banquet hall to be built on the site of the former Ramada Inn.
“There was thought some time back that Trumbull County … was underserved in terms of hospitality,” with regard to both hotel rooms and banquet space, Cafaro’s Bell remarks. “Businesses were looking for places for their events. They were looking for places to put up executives or other workers for long term.”
The “shale boom” – the new activity associated with the oil and gas industry’s growth in the region – heightened awareness of that need “and that has just accelerated the need to increase” hotel, banquet and meeting space in the county, Bell says.
The new Residence Inn will feature both two-bedroom and efficiency suites, and all will have kitchens, business desks, WiFi connections and “all the other amenities that go with the Residence Inn for those travelers who are going to be here for, say, several weeks or even several months at a time,” Bell says.
Projected to open, along with the banquet center, in late 2013, the hotel will join the Fairfield Inn on the mall property near Home Depot and the Holiday Inn Express on the eastern side of Route 46 in Howland Township, part of a growing hospitality presence in that area.
Stephanie Sferra, executive director of the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau, acknowledges the three companies that have contacted her over the past two years regarding feasibility studies for hotels have centered their efforts in Niles.
Sferra speculates they may be looking at the expansion of the mall, which has more than 200 stores, as well as Eastwood Field, the stadium that is the home field for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers and stages concerts and other events throughout the year. “It would make sense to put hotels in that area because you’ve got built-in traffic,” she says.
Occupancy at the 64-room Niles Fairfield Inn typically runs around 94%, says Jen Ruiz, general manager. Her property’s key customer tends to be the midweek corporate-business traveler who has business in the greater Mahoning Valley. “Four days is the average stay,” she says.
While her property can accommodate long-term guests to an extent, her rooms lack the full kitchens a Residence Inn offers, so the new hotel opening at the mall “definitely will meet unmet demand for extended stay” properties in Trumbull County, she says.
Despite the growth in properties near the mall, Liberty Township still plays an important role in the Trumbull County – and the Mahoning Valley – hospitality industry, says township administrator Patrick J. Ungaro. According to the township fire inspector, he says, there are 400 rooms in the township.
That figure is getting ready to grow as well. A group of physicians and the owners of the Holiday Inn Boardman plan to break ground later this year for the new Comfort Suites, with a completion goal in 2013. “They’re out for bids now,” Ungaro says.
Although some foundation work might be done in the next couple of months, major construction is set for next spring, he reports. The hotel will add 90 rooms and a banquet center that can seat 500 guests.
Hotel activity “seems to be picking up,” Ungaro says, attributing that in part to the V&M Star project just a mile away. “There’s a lot of corporate presence with them, a lot of people traveling,” he says.
The township administrator also points to the access Interstate 80 provides travelers to Belmont Avenue, which he says is the second-busiest roadway in the Mahoning Valley, behind only U.S. Route 224 in Mahoning County. “People travel I-80 continuously, thousands and thousands every day,” he says. The township also has freeway access via the Route 711 connector at Gypsy Lane and via state Route 11 at Tibbetts-Wick Road.
“It’s why Walmart is here,” he says. If the economy hadn’t been so poor for the last three years, there would have been “some major projects,” he says.
Ashok Patel, owner of the Quality Inn & Suites North, 4055 Belmont Ave., confirms that business has improved at his property, 7% to 10% ahead of last year.
Patel attributes the gains to the improved economy, encouraging people to travel again. He estimates about 70% of his traffic is from travelers driving I-80.
“I have a little bit of business from V&M,” he confirms. He is anticipating activity from the oil and gas business, but hasn’t seen any as yet. Occupancy typically runs in the 49% to 55% range, he reports.
One benefit of the hotel industry to Liberty is the bed tax revenue the township collects, something Ungaro describes as a “massive generator for us,” helping plug gaps in township funds left by reductions in state funds. The township official says he is working with the owner of the Metroplex Hotel and Conference Center – “It’s hard to get bank money,” he acknowledges –- and “a couple more hotels that need to be re-energized, that are in need of repair.”
When Motel 6 took over a property that had been “a place of undesirables,” Ungaro notes, the company put $2 million into it. “That’s been a big positive for us,” he says.
The Metroplex, formerly affiliated with the Holiday Inn brand, is renovating several of its rooms to provide extended-stay space, according to Bill Miller, executive director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission. Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda says the property has entire floors leased to oil and gas companies now.
Other hotel properties in the township include the Hampton Inn Youngstown-North, Days Inn and Super 8.
Ungaro says doesn’t see the hotel emergence near Eastwood as a competitor to properties in Liberty. “I don’t think one is hurting the other,” he remarks.
While that area is suitable for people doing business in Warren or at the mall, “if you’re going across the country and want to stop off, Liberty would be suitable for that,” he says. “It’s a different market.”
Money determines the marketplace, he reflects, which is why the Residence Inn is developing at Eastwood and why Comfort Suites is coming to Liberty.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was published in the MidOctober edition of The Business Journal. CLICK HERE to subscribe.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.