May 23--As remodelers tear away at the Broadview Hotel and the east-side Ramada, new owner Mordechei Boaziz is eyeing another Wichita hotel, and the Broadview is encountering its first obstacle since the Miami businessman took control in January. 

Boaziz's plans to make the Broadview a Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza are on hold until Holiday Inn's parent company decides whether the downtown hotel will take business away from another property. Officials at Wichita's Holiday Inn Select requested the review, concerned that a renovated Broadview would be too much like its own hotel at Rock Road and Kellogg Avenue. 

"Why are you going to put the same product five miles away?" asked Andre Laz, general manager of the Holiday Inn Select, formerly the Four Points Sheraton, near Rock and Kellogg. "They could be a million other things" besides a Holiday Inn, he said. 

Bass Hotels & Resorts of London -- which operates more than 3,000 Holiday Inns worldwide -- is conducting a study to determine whether the Broadview, at 400 W. Douglas Ave., would take business from the Holiday Inn Select. Bass expects to complete the study within 10 days and then decide whether the Broadview can be a Holiday Inn. 

Brian Anderson, general manager of the Broadview and the Ramada Inn at 7335 E. Kellogg, said he's optimistic the Broadview will become a Holiday Inn. 

"The product would be similar" to the Holiday Inn Select, "but the markets are different," he said. 

"Downtown is convention business," he said. "It's not going to do damage to anyone," he said, "and it will help the city draw more convention visitors." 

As a Holiday Inn, the Broadview would feature 235 rooms, down from the current 262 but renovated to standards set by Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza. Anderson said the original renovation plan called for 275 rooms to be completed by mid-May, but the decision to franchise slowed down remodeling. He now expects a remodeled Broadview by September. 

Meanwhile, the Ramada Inn continues its $3 million renovation intending to upgrade its affiliation to a Ramada Plaza, a more upscale franchise. Changes include stucco finishes and new furniture and lighting. 

Boaziz is also concluding negotiations to buy the Clarion Hotel at 5805 W. Kellogg, near Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, with plans to reflag it as a Four Points Sheraton hotel. 

"We've already ordered furniture for the property," Anderson said. He expects that deal to close by the end of the month. 

Anderson said that Boaziz is trying to buy a third property to exploit three distinct Wichita Hotel markets: downtown, the east side and the airport. 

"It's very efficient to have multiple sites in a single market," he said. 

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