NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A hotel proposal to address the city's needs for additional rooms to retain large events was approved Tuesday. LeAnn Cox with Visit Hutch said the new development has been years in the making.
"We started in 2018, because we saw, honestly, the writing on the wall of the deterioration of our existing hotel and conference center. We knew we had some big hurdles ahead of us. It's been a long time coming, but here we are, 2022 and it looks like it's happening."
This is still not going to happen tomorrow, but it will be as fast as possible.
"The design phase will take about six to eight months," Cox said. "Within that first six months, he will acquire the actual franchise agreement with, in this scenario, perhaps Hilton and then from that point on, probably 14 months-ish to go from shovel in the ground to opening those doors."
This makes a reasonable goal of having the new Hilton Garden Inn open for the 2025 edition of the NJCAA Tournament.
"The NJCAA, we've been telling them for years and years, we're working on this problem. We want to fix this problem. Now, we're kind of at the end of that rope and they are not going to want to hear us say, well now, it's going to be three more years. We've shared with them, two more tournaments and then we're in a lot better shape, so that's what they anticipate us fulfilling."
Cox is still looking to talk with additional developers about a second hotel project, as this one does not completely refill the bank of hotel rooms lost by the Atrium's deterioration.
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