Sept. 28–While the oil and gas industry is still filling Greeley hotels, other business is pouring into the area, just in time to fill new rooms coming to town.
So far, Homewood Suites, 2510 46th Ave. in west Greeley, and Cobblestone Inn, 485, S. Elm in Eaton, have gained ground, and are expected to open soon to alleviate the near 81 percent occupancy in hotels around town.
Renee VonWeiland, vice president of operations at Spirit Hospitality in Fort Collins, said she has seen more than just the oil and gas industry workers flooding into Greeley hotels.
VonWeiland represents the Candlewood Suites, 3530 W. 29th St., and the Hampton Inn and Suites, 2350 W. 29th St., in Greeley. She said Candlewood has maintained 80 percent occupancy since the hotel opened a year ago. According to the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report, Greeley hotels were 80.7 percent occupied in the month of August and 77.4 percent occupied throughout the year.
“We have a lot of oil and gas but we’ve also established corporate relationships,” VonWeiland said. She said lot of the incoming business and industry workers aren’t sure how long they will be staying, so extended stays at the hotels are common. Plus, VonWeiland said, “I’ve heard the rental market is slim pickings.”
Sarah MacQuiddy, president of the Greeley Chamber of Commerce, said she has seen many hotels in the area sprucing up and even a few new additions to the hospitality industry, such as the upcoming Homewood Inn and Suites.
“Many of these hotels kind of went in at the same time,” MacQuiddy said. “Now they’re saying it’s time to touch up and freshen up and make sure they’re meeting those needs of the current traveler.”
David Amin, the developer of The Homewood Inn and Suites, is taking some of those needs into his own hands by building a high-quality hotel at the Centerplace shopping center to cater to CEO’s and management.
The Homewood Inn and Suites is set to open in April 2015.
Amin made the decision to build a hotel in Greeley because of the city’s extreme growth.
“Greeley economically has outpaced Colorado in growth,” he said.
The Homewood Inn will have suites with full mini kitchens and even some with separate living space for guests. He said because of its unique nature, the hotel won’t take any of the standing business from existing Greeley hospitality.
“I am truly trying to gain a lot of the market share from Loveland,” and north Denver,” he said.
Amin said he sees a lot of high quality business going on in Greeley, but nowhere for those top executives to stay.
“We’re bleeding business to the outlying areas,” he said.
Amin said he thinks this project has jump-started Centerplace one more time by attracting other businesses.
“I think this will help Centerplace come to the vision that was intended,” he said. “Having a high quality hotel really brings the experience in Centerplace closer to what you were to get if you stayed in Loveland at Centerra or north Denver.”
A Cobblestone Inn and Suites is being built in Eaton to service the smaller communities north of Greeley. Scott Renfroe, an investor in the new property, said they are on track to open the 45-room hotel by mid-November as planned.
Renfroe said the hotel is being built to cater to family and friends visiting northern Colorado families.
“We’re looking to be more of a niche up there so that people who like up there and have family and friends come visit,” they will have somewhere to stay, he said.
Renfroe said everyone involved with the project is excited to open and get started serving the northern communities.
The oil and gas industry still is bringing in a lot of the hospitality industry’s business though, MacQuiddy said.
“Just because they’re doing so much hiring they’re still filling up the hotels,” MacQuiddy said.
MacQuiddy said she still thinks the increase in hospitality business is directly correlated to the oil and gas industry.
“It happened very suddenly,” MacQuiddy said. “One day everybody woke up and said, ‘Whoa!’?” because oil and gas workers are coming in and filling Greeley’s hotels and rentals quicker than they are becoming available.
Becky Safarik, assistant city manager for Greeley, said a convention center slated to be built in downtown Greeley to capture some of the business travelers is moving along, but the project took a step backward to move forward. Building a convention center would likely make Greeley more of a destination for big groups instead of just industry workers.
Safarik said the city is doing an independent market study currently to assess the potential of a downtown convention center.
She said with the study they are trying to assess the local hotel market and whether the city is missing out on anything by not having a convention center.
The city should have some answers to these questions in the next four to six weeks, which will help with decisions to either move the project forward or call it off.
With the economic growth, Safarik said, “this is a great time to do this.”
Besides business and oil and gas guests, VonWeiland said she thinks Greeley, Loveland and the rest of northern Colorado is becoming a hub for recreation and summer vacation.
The Downtown Development Authority and the Convention and Visitors Bureau bring events to Greeley and Weld County, attracting visitors to the area.
VonWeiland said there are a lot of tourists choosing to stay in Greeley during the summer months.
“I think in general northern Colorado has come alive,” she said. “And Loveland and Greeley are so centrally located. It’s a great place to spoke out from. A lot of people use northern Colorado as a hub for their vacation.”
Although the boom and influx of people began very suddenly, VonWeiland said she thinks the growth is here to stay.
“I have been told this could go on for 20 to 25 more years,” she said.
MacQuiddy said she and other community leaders will be busy the next few months coming up with ideas of how to accommodate the new growth.
“We need to address the challenge of housing availability and affordability,” she said “It’s a great challenge to have.”
“Greeley economically has outpaced Colorado in growth.
— David amin, developer of the Homewood Inn and Suites
