“They’re looking at it,” Slaybaugh said Wednesday.
A smaller hotel could be built closer to the airport’s terminal building and parking garage than the proposed hotel site at the intersection of Terminal Drive and Boeing Drive. Slaybaugh said he would prefer the closer location.
He said he is still hopeful the hotel, initially envisioned as a $15 million, six-story project, can be built and in operation by the end of 2012. At one time, airport officials had hoped to see it operating by the end of 2010. In late 2010, Dayton granted the developer a six-month extension to pursue construction financing.
The recession and the existence of nearby competing hotels along Interstate 75 make it a challenge to obtain financing for yet another hotel, development industry officials have said.
Cincinnati contractor D.A.G. Construction Co. has been planning to build a 115-room Holiday Inn & Suites at the airport for White Hills Hospitality LLC, a Cincinnati-based hotel operator.
Dale White Sr., president and chief executive officer of D.A.G. Construction, said the banks his company has contacted across the country have been unwilling to provide construction loans for the project.
Asked if its backers would consider changing the size of the hotel, White said: “It all depends on the financing, how much we can get.”
InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn brand and grants franchise operating agreements, expects the new airport hotel to open by the end of 2012, spokeswoman Sherry Telford said in an email response.
The new building would replace the 40-year-old Dayton Airport Hotel, a city-owned operation that Dayton closed in January 2010 to end months of financial losses. A contractor has begun demolishing the old hotel, to make way for a parking lot.
The new hotel would be privately owned and generate $48,800 annually in payments to Dayton for a lease on the city-owned land.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDaily News.com.
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