Extended-stay hotels look to benefit from jobs near Austin Landing

Hilton brand proposes new hotel in area where thousands work.


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A hotel proposed near Austin Landing would be the second higher-end extended-stay lodging site looking to capitalize on corporate employers providing thousands of jobs in the Ohio 741 corridor that stretches to the Dayton Mall.

Developers for a Home2 Suites by Hilton hope to build a 100-plus room, four-story hotel in in The Exchange at Spring Valley. If approved, it would join the 108-room Staybridge Suites at Austin Landing as an extended stay option catering to a business strip that includes Miami Twp.'s top employers.

The employment base includes about 3,000 jobs at LexisNexis and hundreds more at PNC Bank Mortgage, MetLife and Teradata. It represents “a growing office area with a number of business travelers,” said Oberer Companies Project Manager Greg Smith, listed as the owner on 741 Developers Ltd.’s application for Home2 Suites proposal.

The business market for the Staybridge Suites – which plans to open in December – extends beyond the Ohio 741 corridor, said Doug Steinke, president of S + S Management and Hospitality, which also operates The Hilton Garden Inn at Austin Landing.

Steinke said the Kettering Health Network and Motoman’s North American headquarters — which account for about 1,800 and 350 jobs, respectively, in Miamisburg, according to the city — are factors in why Staybridge picked its location.

But he said the employment base just north of Austin Landing along Ohio 741 was a “tremendous” influence on its site selection.

“It’s just that whole corporate base around us — that is the draw,” Steinke said. “That’s what’s bringing people in to our end of Dayton are those companies.”

“On weekends, it’s definitely a leisure market,” Steinke added. “There’s so many things that go on in that area.”

He notes “a lot of the folks will probably stay for a month or several months at a time. It’s not unusual even for somebody to be in there a year.”

Early plans by 741 Developers Ltd. call for Home2 Suites to include 106 suites in a four-story structure on 1.8 acres in The Exchange at Spring Valley.

Documents proposing a Home2 Suites by Hilton for the development indicate a focus on surrounding corporate employers, noting “It will be the only walkable hotel to LexisNexis and MetLife.”

Home2 Suites is “a newer brand of Hilton,” said Maani Development Group President Danny Nagar.

Nagar and Smith on Tuesday night received Miami Twp. Zoning Commission approval to allow a hotel as a permitted use on The Exchange’s 41 acres. Township trustees are set to consider the proposal next week.

Pending that approval, more specific plans will likely be submitted in January with the goal of beginning a year-long construction next spring, Smith said.

The brand recently opened a $9 million, 66,000 square foot hotel in Liberty Twp., its first Ohio site among more than 300 locations, Nagar said.

The proposed site in Miami Twp. will not only serve the community’s large employers, but benefit restaurants and other businesses within The Exchange, Smith said.

“Largely I think we have a growing office area with a number of business travelers to benefit from this use, and the proximity to the existing office spaces has a nice co-generation of benefits to each other,” he said.

“So the employees of the offices would be able to stay at the hotel,” Smith added. “The people who stay at the hotel will be able to visit the restaurants – a similar concept that they’ve got going at Austin Landing. The mixed uses benefit each other by having different activities going on at different times of the day.”

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