Revival goes on as downtown adds new hotel
Fairfield Inn adds to growth around Water Street, RiverScape area.
The first new hotel constructed in downtown Dayton in more than 40 years opens next week, marking a move in a new direction for the Water Street developers.
The 98-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott was constructed on a compact site at the northeast corner of East Monument Avenue and Riverside Drive in the Water Street District.
“I think it’s special for Dayton because it’s the first one in a long time, and it’s location is special, given it’s proximity to (Fifth Third Field) and everything else that is happening at Water Street,” said Bob Hoying, principal with Crawford Hoying, one of the developers of Water Street.
Other potential future projects in the area include for-pur- chase housing and, if things go well, another hotel.
The new Fairfield Inn & Suites opens on Thursday. Construction on the 55,000-square-foot hotel began in August 2017. Pre-sales began over the summer months.
The six-story hotel, Marriott’s latest prototype, has colorful art, furniture and decorations. Its amenities include a secondfloor fitness center and a bar with limited food service and an outdoor patio.
Rooms have flat-screen TVs and queen- or king-sized beds. Suites come with queen-sized pull-out couches.
“We want people who stay here to come back, so we want them to have a great experience and stay here every time they need to come into Dayton,” Hoying said.
Developers say one of the positives for the hotel is a location near other amenities.
These include Fifth Third Field, RiverScape and the theaters and
attractions along North Main Street. The hotel also is not far from the Oregon District, the Century Bar and the Levitt Pavilion.
T he hotel ex p ects to serve business travelers, visitors to the University of Dayton and Wright State, wedding parties, people in town for special events and festivals and guests look- ing for weekend getaways, developers say.
It’s the first new hotel to be built in downtown Dayton since the Stouffer’s Dayton Plaza Hotel in 1976. At 33 E. Fifth St., that later became the Crowne Plaza Dayton. It was part of the Midtown Mart Urban Renewal project.
Some of the destinations closest to the Fairfield Inn are Water Street District projects, like Basil’s on Market and Lock 27 Brewing.
The northeastern part of downtown is active in large part because of the new restaurants, offices, businesses and the more than 400 apartments that have opened in the Water Street District.
With new attractions added into the mix like the Levitt Pavilion, downtown’s pull as an entertainment destination has grown, and hotel is in a very walkable area, said Holly Allen, direc- tor of marketing and com- munications with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.
“As more jobs come downtown, and we consider the future of the Dayton Convention Center, there is a need for more hotel rooms,” she said.
Woodard Development and Dublin-based Crawford Hoying, the district’s developers, have more projects planned or underway for downtown Dayton.
They are working on a 112-unit apartment building called the Centerfield Flats across from the eastern end of the ballpark and the Delco Lofts over the western edge of the baseball stadium.
Woodard Development also is rehabbing one vacant building on the 600 block of East Third Street into offices and has acquired another next door, though plans remain under development.
The Water Street District’s projects have proven there is demand for new offices, higher-end apartments and other products.
Some people were not sold on the idea that downtown really needed a new hotel. But some also were skeptical that the Water Street apartments would be a hit, and they were fully leased by the time the certificate of occupancy was issued, said Brent Crawford, principal with Crawford Hoying.
“That never happens,” he said. “There is a huge pent-up demand, and just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it won’t be successful.”