April 18–Fort Smith hospitality tax numbers were up for February by nearly 8 percent amid the remodeling of several hotels, one of which is being rebranded as a DoubleTree by Hilton.
Ike Thrash of Hattiesburg, Miss-based Dawn Properties, the new owners of the Holiday Inn City Center, confirmed Friday the downtown hotel will become a DoubleTree as part of its $7 million-plus makeover. Dawn Properties bought the 28-year-old hotel at 700 Rogers Ave. in November for a little more than $3 million.
“We have moved through construction plans with DoubleTree and agreed to the things that they add to the construction,” Thrash wrote in an email.
Over the past few months, work crews have put in new heating, ventilating and air conditioning system for the 255-room hotel. A new elevator and boiler system were also high on the agenda as part of the renovations. Thrash said in January that renovations would run between $7 million and $8 million if built to DoubleTree’s specifications.
Thrash said a “coming soon” DoubleTree sign will be put up “pretty soon,” but they will operate as an independent business until rehabilitation is complete. An interim name has not been chosen yet, he added, but the Holiday Inn name was originally agreed to cease by the end of May.
February hospitality tax collections for the Holiday Inn were $6,109, about $1,100 more from the same time last year. The Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is solely dependent on the 3 percent lodging tax collection for its annual budget, released the tax figures this week. The report shows $58,657, compared to $54,315 for February 2014.
The top earner among Fort Smith’s hotels continues to be the Hampton Inn & Suites Fort Smith, which is also undergoing renovations at 6201 Rogers Ave. The hotel, which was bought by CSK Hotels Inc. of Fort Smith in September, is also in the Hilton Worldwide family. Hampton Inn & Suites brought in $8,908 for February for the visitors bureau, compared to $9,786 for February 2014.
“We saw a pretty good February, and we’re hearing amazing things about coming months,” Fort Smith Advertising & Promotions Commission Executive Director Claude Legris said.
Indicating an improvement in the economy, Legris also there was only one hotel with a delinquency for February and the property managers caught up with the tax remittance the following week.
Storm Nolan of CSK Hotels said a swing in numbers at Hampton Inn can be attributed to a large group of government business, which is tax-exempt.
Rounding out the top five hospitality tax earners for February behind Hampton Inn were Courtyard by Marriott, 900 Rogers Ave., with $7,791 collected in February, up from $6,830 in 2014; Homewood Suites by Hilton, 7300 Phoenix Ave., with $6,538, up from $5,181; Holiday Inn City Center, with $6,109, up from $5,038; and Holiday Inn Express, 6813 Phoenix Ave., with $3,890 in February, down from $3,986 in 2014.
