June 28, 2012--The Suburban Collection Showplace is getting its very own hotel.

The Hyatt Place is scheduled to open in spring 2013 with 126 rooms on six floors. It will be owned by Suburban Collection Showplace President Blair Bowman, who said the project will cost $9.5 million.

"The reason why we're building an on-site hotel is to better serve our existing business, but more importantly, to check that box for meeting planners and convention planners that need and require an on-site hotel before they consider a property," he said. "We have every other piece of the puzzle."

Currrently, out-of-town attendees and exhibitors have to stay in other hotels throughout Novi or in neighboring communities, such as Livonia and Farmington Hills. The city has 2,000-plus rooms, according to Bowman.

"It's an amount of rooms that will not oversaturate the market; it will complement the market," he continued. "It will provide us with a meaningful block of rooms on site. If we're extremely successful, do we have the ability to expand? Yes."

Bowman said he's always planned to add a hotel, even when he was on the Novi Expo Center site. After moving to the current location in 2005, he continued to work toward building one, but then the economy went sour.

Kevin Schramm, Hyatt's vice president of real estate and development, said Bowman's ownership of both the convention center and the adjacent hotel is a "very unique situation."

"The owner demonstrated that a number of groups weren't currently hosting their events at his venue, specifically because there was not a hotel attached, so the thought process there was by building and attaching the hotel to the Suburban Collection Showplace, the existing demand would increase substantially as a result," he said.

Hyatt has five hotels in the state -- a Hyatt Regency in Dearborn and Hyatt Places in Livonia, Utica, Auburn Hills and the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming. Another property is pending, according to Schramm.

He pointed out that the new hotel will ultimately boost the local economy, too: "For each new group they secure, there's a trickle-down effect that goes beyond the hotel and convention center. It spills over into restaurants, bars, gas stations."

But hotel industry expert Robert Mandlebaum of the Atlanta-based consulting firm PKF Hospitality Research sees a challenge for the periods when no show or conference is under way.

"In general, conventions centers, expo centers, work better when there is a hotel attached to the facility. The challenge for the hotel is considering ... is there enough demand to support the hotel 365 days a year," he said.

The new facility will also mean an approximately 20,000-square-foot expansion for the Suburban Collection Showplace's Diamond Banquet and Conference Center, the company said.

Contact Zlati Meyer: 313-223-4439 or [email protected]

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