Local government officials and business leaders gathered downtown Tuesday afternoon for the official ribbon-cutting at the new Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel on West Second Street.
The $50-million project broke ground in 2019 but was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed back the completion date. The hotel began accepting reservations in mid-September.
“This is one of the only hotels you’ll find that started during COVID and was built during COVID,” said Ed Ray, chief operating officer for Gulfstream Commercial Services, the company that developed the hotel.
Construction was impacted by factors such as architects working from home during the pandemic and various delays, Ray said. The western side of the building had to be redone after sustaining damage in a large spring hailstorm, he said.
Having the hotel open despite the delays was a “miracle,” Ray said.
Candance Castlen Brake, Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, said when city and county elected officials voted to raise the insurance premium tax to pay for downtown development, “we told the community, ‘this is not a beautification project, this is economic development.’”
Brake was a city commissioner when the tax increase was approved in 2009.
The government investment has led to an influx of private-sector spending on downtown development, Brake said.
“I’m so proud to say, to date, for every $1 (in government spending), there has been $5 in private-sector investment,” Brake said.
Samir Lakhany, president of Superhost Hospitality, the company managing the hotel, said the 144-room hotel is “going to be a great asset for the community” and will create careers as hotel workers move up the business ladder.
The Home2 Suites is the third hotel to open downtown, joining the Hampton Inn & Suites Downtown Owensboro Waterfront and the Holiday Inn Owensboro Riverfront. Lakhany said the Home2 Suites is unique because it offers rooms for guests on extended stays.
“We’re not trying to take business away from other hotels,” Lakhany said. “This is the only all-suite product you have in downtown Owensboro, and right now people are going to municipalities, other cities that are 40 minutes away for that type of use.”
The new hotel is within a stone’s throw of the city’s indoor sports complex being built downtown.
Lakhany said sports teams look for Home2 Suites hotels and noted in a separate interview that the hotel will attract a variety of business.
“Most hotels are focused on just corporate business or group business or sports teams,” Lakhany said. “We have the ability to attract all types … of those types of groups to our hotel.”
The second phase of the project, which will include apartments, a parking garage and retail space, is under construction.
That portion of the project will be completed “sometime in 2026,” Lakhany said.
By: James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer