Construction on Tuscaloosa’s newest hotel is now underway.
This time, the work is occurring alongside Interstate 20/59 near Exit 77, the Cottondale exit, on a $10 million Holiday Inn Express and Suites.
On pace to open by December, this 95-room hotel will be locally owned by Cambridge Hospitality and locally managed by Wilson Hospitality Management Co. LLC under a licensing agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the parent company of the Holiday Inn Express brand.
“We look forward to partnering with IHG and providing future guests with the unmatched comfort and hospitality that comes with staying at a Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel,” said Hunter Plott, owner of Cambridge Hospitality, in a press release announcing the new hotel.
The proposed four-story hotel will feature guest rooms with either king size or two queen beds, a fitness center, outdoor pool, a patio area with a fire pit and 600 square feet of meeting space.
Other amenities are included in the hotel’s design, which has been created to meet the evolving needs of the guests. These include an open, pod-style front desk for expedited check-ins and check-outs and community tables with built-in wired and wireless charging ports along with guest rooms featuring the under-the-counter refrigerators, microwaves and coffee makers that are meant to reduce noise and enhance sleep along with functional storage spaces and multiple points of electrical power.
For Toby Wilson, founder of Tuscaloosa-based Wilson Hospitality Management Co., this will be his company’s first move outside of the Hampton Inn brand, two of which he currently manages in the Tuscaloosa market.
Wilson said the research and consultation that went into the development of this new Holiday Inn Express and Suites showed that, despite a recent increase of hotel development, the area can still absorb more. “We have a strong market, barring any national or economic downtowns,” Wilson said.
That market has led to a series of hotels announced, constructed or under construction in Tuscaloosa — mainly within the downtown area — in recent years.
The $14 million, five-story TownePlace Suites by Marriott began construction in March 2019 on the former site of Advance Auto Parts between Buffalo Wild Wings and the Springbrook neighborhood off McFarland Boulevard. This hotel’s 93 rooms are expected to have a small kitchen with cooking facilities and basic kitchen equipment. Another hotel announced for an area outside of downtown is the estimated $60 million, 120-suite “Southern Living Hotel Tuscaloosa” was announced in December for a 37-acre site between the now-closed Cypress Inn and Rice Mine Road Loop.
But downtown Tuscaloosa is the hotspot.
This is where, in February, the Alamite was announced as the first Marriott Tribute Portfolio Hotel in Alabama. This estimated $30 million, 112-room full service hotel is planned for the corner of Sixth Street and 23rd Avenue.
In 2018, the City Council approved plans for the AC Marriott, a $27 million, 120-room hotel that is now under construction on the former Fire Station No. 1 site on Lurleen B. Wallace Boulevard South between Sixth and Seventh streets.
Though it missed its late 2019 expected opening, the 89-room Comfort Inn and Suites is nearing completion on Jack Warner Parkway just west of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama and across the street from the Synovus bank building. Construction started in September on the 114-room, $19.7 million Homewood Suites by Hilton near the intersection of Jack Warner Parkway and Greensboro Avenue.
And that same month, an eight-room, Crimson Tide-themed hotel was approved for the remodeled Saga Resource Partners building at 221 Greensboro Ave., between River Hill Apartments and 301 Bistro, Bar & Beer Garden. This was followed by approval for The Druid, a proposed 16-room hotel that will replace the current River Hill Apartments.
When completed, these downtown inns will only add to the hotel landscape of downtown that has taken shape in recent years. The 91-room Hotel Indigo opened alongside the river in September 2016 after about a year of construction. The 154-room Embassy Suites hotel, approved by the City Council in 2012, opened in February 2015 on the northwest corner of Greensboro Avenue and University Boulevard. And in August 2015, the 113-room Home2 Suites by Hilton opened in the 2600 block of University Boulevard just west of Lurleen Wallace Boulevard South. It was approved for construction in 2013.
Reach Jason Morton at [email protected] or 205-722-0200. ___ (c)2020 The Tuscaloosa News, Ala. Visit The Tuscaloosa News, Ala. at www.tuscaloosanews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.