Hays Post
A Wichita developer announced today the intent to build a new 500-seat, 8,400-square-foot conference center and hotel west of the Hays Walmart.
The Hilton Garden Inn will have 100 beds and contain a small restaurant and bar. It would employ the equivalent of about 35 full-time employees.
Ground could be broken as soon as April on the new $12 million to $14 million facility with the center opening in 12 to 14 months, developer Raju Sheth said.
The project will be located in the Ottley Addition, which is being considered for annexation by the city. City staff recommended the annexation to the city commission during a work session Thursday night, saying it was contiguous with the current city limits, was a likely location for future development and was readily accessible to the extension of city services.
The Hays Area Planning Commission is scheduled to have a public hearing on rezoning the land from Agricultural to C-2 Commercial on Dec. 18. The property is surrounded by existing Commercial (C-2) zoning, Walmart, Carrico Implement and Mid Kansas Auto Auction. Ottley is the owner of Mid Kansas Auto Auction.
The preliminary plat of the Ottley Addition was approved Nov. 20.
The city commissioners had no questions on the project Thursday night.
Sheth said Hays is in need of conference space, and the developers would like to get the project off the ground sooner rather than later.
“It makes the most sense in Hays,” he said. “There is no space for big weddings or small conventions to fit other than the university.”
Sheth said he thought the new space would be complimentary to Fort Hays State University and might be used by the school to bring in future events. The center will include the latest in video and audio equipment.
In addition to the hotel and conference center, the development will have space for a new stand-alone restaurant and strip mall.
Developers have included plans for additional parking as well as work on 43rd Street.
Aaron White, executive director of the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development, said the Coalition and the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau have been trying to get a convention center in Hays since at least 2011. White has been working with this developer since this summer.
“We are very excited to see this project go forward,” he said. “A product with a full-service hotel and conference center has great potential, and we are glad to see it happening.”
Multiple conferences over the years have expressed interest in staging in Hays, but there was not space for them, White said. One of these has included the Kansas Department of Commerce Rural Opportunities Conference, which draws about 200 to 250 attendees.
The economic impact of a facility such as this does not just come from the taxes generated by the center but by the secondary spending by people who use the center on things such as gas, restaurants and shopping while they are here.
Research indicates Hays has room for another hotel, White said. If a community has 30 or more days per year in which all the hotel rooms are full, market research indicates there is room for more hotel rooms. Hays is averaging about 50 days full per year.
Even though the rooms at the now demolished former Ramada Inn were sub-standard, their removal left a 200-bed void in the city’s hotel stock, White said. The new Hilton Garden and another hotel going in next to JT Travel Plaza is merely replacing the rooms that were lost, White said.
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