Aug. 28, 2003 - RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.-- In a quiet industrial park across the street from Ontario Mills, developers are planning to build five new hotels that will break Ontario's near monopoly on accommodations for air travelers, mall visitors, and business travelers.

If approved by the city, all five hotels would be built within a block of the corner of Fourth Street and Milliken, convenient to the mall, the airport, and the fast-growing business base in southeast Rancho Cucamonga.

"It's a matter of the nearby hotels in Ontario finally reaching a critical mass of occupancy where more hotels can open and be profitable," City Planner Brad Buller said.

Ontario has more than a dozen hotels. Rancho has one major hotel, a six story, 114 room Best Western at Foothill Boulevard and Spruce built 11 years ago. In sum the new projects will add more than 500 hotel rooms to the city.

Realtor Carol Plowman, who helped bring the hotels to the city, said that the success of Ontario Mills, the growth of Ontario airport, and the rapid growth in demand for Rancho office space has fueled the hotel projects.

The biggest project includes three hotels -- a 117 room Courtyard by Marriott, a 122 room Hilton Garden Inn, and a 103 room Homewood Suites -- all built by Theraldson Development, the largest independent hotel management company in the country.

Theraldson plans to build a complex of restaurants adjacent to their project, tentatively including Chicago Pizza, Famous Dave's, Panda Express, and Carrows.

Upland-based Studio 3 Architects has already presented plans for another a 93-room, 3-story Holiday Inn Express on a nearby parcel.

The fifth hotel, a Town Place by Marriott, plans to locate next to the Holiday Inn Express.

"Hotels love to cluster together," Plowman said. "It was very challenging to find a parcel like this that could accommodate five different hotels, and Rancho Cucamonga really jumped on the idea and encouraged these developers to do their project in the city."

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(c) 2003, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MAR, HLT, CHGO, DAVE,