Oct. 12, 2011--DAYTON -- The city wants an answer by week's end as to whether a developer planning to build a Holiday Inn on Dayton International Airport property can obtain financing for the project. The hotel was to have been operating by the end of 2010. It's now been scaled back to a $10 million, four-story hotel with 90 to 95 rooms, rather than a $15 million, six-story hotel with 130 or so rooms, officials said Tuesday.

If the developer cannot secure the loans by the end of this week, Dayton will issue a new request for proposals to see whether others would want to do the project, said Terrence G. Slaybaugh, Dayton's director of aviation.

Three banks are examining the proposed project for possible financing, said Dale White Sr., chief executive officer of Cincinnati contractor D.A.G. Construction Co., which would build the hotel for White Hills Hospitality LLC, a Cincinnati-based hotel operator. White declined to elaborate, but said he is encouraged that bankers are at least evaluating the project.

The sluggish economy and the resulting skittishness of banks about loaning money for hotel construction contributed to the delay, airport and contractor officials have said. Dayton has previously granted the developer additional time to seek financing.

The envisioned Holiday Inn & Suites hotel would compete with others in the area, including those that neighbor the nearby intersection of Interstates 70 and 75. Slaybaugh said, however, he believes the airport could generate enough business to support an on-site hotel.

Air crews with brief stopovers between flights need ready access to lodging, and Dayton-based PSA Airlines maintains a training facility at the airport that draws PSA employees for training stays, Slaybaugh said. On average, 3,500 people a day fly out of Dayton, most of them business travelers.

"There's some built-in demand here," he said. "I think it is a viable project."

If the developer meets the deadline for securing loans, the contractor would need to update construction drawings and obtain city permits before proceeding, White said.

He said his company has already invested close to $1.5 million in the preparatory work and would like to start construction by the end of this year if possible.

The hotel originally was to have been built at the intersection of Terminal Drive and Boeing Drive. But Slaybaugh said plans now call for locating it on the site of the 40-year-old Dayton Airport Hotel that the city recently demolished. That would put the new hotel adjacent to the PSA training facility as the old hotel was.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or [email protected].

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