June 28–CHEYENNE — Site work has begun on a new 95-room hotel a few blocks north of Dell Range Boulevard in Cheyenne.

Officials with Staybridge Suites are building a four-story hotel on land just north of Target and east of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant.

Grading is underway at the site now, Matt Ashby, director of planning services for the city of Cheyenne, said Friday. Hotel officials bought the land from Ed and Lester Cole.

The address for the new hotel is 5109 Frontier Mall Drive.

Staybridge Suites is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, which operates 4,700 hotels in nearly 100 countries. Hotels in the group include Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Candlewood Suites, the IHG website said.

As of Dec. 31, 2013, there were 196 Staybridge Suites hotels across the country, with an additional 80 hotels in the planning stages.

The closest one to Cheyenne is at Denver International Airport.

Staybridge Suites offers one- and two-bedroom rooms with fully-equipped kitchens. Kitchens will feature full-size refrigerators, microwave ovens, cook-top stoves and dishwashers.

Rooms also will offer free high-speed Internet access. Staybridge Suites are pet friendly, and have a pool, laundry and fitness center.

The design for the Cheyenne hotel includes a courtyard, Ashby said.

Hotel officials could not be reached Friday for comment on the local project.

One part of the project that Cheyenne residents and other drivers will notice is the extension of the street called Rue Terre, Ashby said.

Hotel officials and the former landowners will pay for a 1,000-foot extension of the street. The extension will connect the east and west parts of the street.

Two other hotels have opened in Cheyenne in the last two months: Comfort Inn on Fox Farm Road and TownePlace Suites by Marriott on West Lincolnway, Ashby said.

“It’s very positive for the Laramie County economy in that this developer is investing in our community,” said Darren Rudloff, chief executive officer of Visit Cheyenne, the area’s tourism arm.

“They obviously have faith in the Laramie County economy.

“We will have new fresh rooms, and it gives us more rooms to market and more rooms to fill.”

From January through May, demand for the area’s lodging rooms was up 6.8 percent from the same time last year, Rudloff said.

“Hotel investors are seeing positive numbers and are betting on our local economy. This is good news for all of us,” Rudloff said.