NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Debra Teufel with the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce told Hutch Post that the plan is still for the new Hilton Garden Inn to finish in 2025.
"The estimated timeline on it that I have heard is to be complete in June. I have not heard that time slip beyond June," Teufel said. "We were really hopeful to have it ready in March for the NJCAA tournament, but we also know that that's probably not practical, and so our best hope is June of 2025, it will be open."
Even once that is open, it only has about half as many rooms as the old Atrium Hotel had at its peak.
"I can't say we're actively in talks with any developer right now, but there are developers we had talked to previously, even before Raju made the site decision for the Hilton Garden Inn that I think still have interest in Hutchinson," Teufel said. "I think we get this one open, we prove that it's performing the way we think it will. I think we still need at least another 100, maybe 150 hotel rooms. So we'll keep marketing Hutchinson as an opportunity for that next hotel, certainly, and what's happening with the Atrium, I think that's going to clear that site for something for the future. That's going to be a little bit of a long-term because just the way that that project will go down. But I could see it in three to four years becoming a site for a new hotel as well."
Teufel doesn't expect Joshua Joseph to hold on to that asset long after the demolition is finished, if he can find a buyer.
"There will be some costs assessed to that site based on the teardown costs," Teufel said. "However, it's still an opportunity that the current property owner will have to market it, and I know he's not going to want to sit on that land. He knows that land still has value and it's probably more value after the demo because it's just set on such a marketable 61 corridor. So I think he will actively market it to try to recoup some of the demolition costs, and I expect maybe sooner than later, we'll see something there."
Joseph is in the midst of the demolition process at the Ambassador Hotel in Salina, as well, so he may have multiple properties to either offload or develop in the near future.