Hotel
the Troll Pub, a restaurant and bar. The company also purchased the former site of St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church at 239 Wayne Ave. in September.
The Ohio Development Services Agency allocated $1.8 million in state historic tax credits to support that project in July. Weyland is spending about $18.2 million to convert the six-story building east of the Oregon District into high-tech offices.
The company is consider- ing what sort of hotel might fit best in the Oregon District, whether it might be a boutique hotel or something else entirely, Gratz said. “There’s a lot of energy in that area,” she said of the Oregon District. “And I think it is poised for more growth.”
The first new downtown hotel in decades — the Fair- field Inn & Suites — opened with 98 rooms at the corner of Monument Avenue and Patterson Boulevard in October. It was the first since Stouffer’s DaytonPlaza Hotel, now the Crowne Plaza, opened in 1976.
A Holiday Inn Express & Suites at 2140 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd. added 96 rooms when it opened in October.
A new 118-room boutique hotel is planned for the 10-story Barclay build- ing formerly anchored by Miller-Valentine Group. The Barclay developers are cur- rently looking for funding, including requesting $4.75 million in state historic pres- ervation tax incentives.
A second boutique hotel is envisioned for the Price Stores building as part of the Fire Block District redevelopment, said Eric VanZwieten, spokesman for the developer Windsor Companies.
New event centers like the recently opened Steam Plant at 617 E. 3rd St. and upcoming Grande Hall in the historic Liberty Tower are drawing weekend travelers for weddings and other events into Downtown Dayton, Baltes said. Hospitals, colleges and convention centers also will always fill some rooms.
Crystal Robertson was staying at the new Fairfield Inn by Marriott near the Dayton Dragons Stadium last week. She’s based in Michigan but every week she travels somewhere new in the Midwest and Northeast of the United States for work.
She chose to stay downtown, because of its proximity to Dayton Children’s Hospital, where she’s working this week. It was the second time she had stayed at the hotel this year.
“Usually there’s a Marriott close to a hospital, and they give hospital rates as well,” Robertson said.
Developers of the Fairfield Inn said it’s location within walking distance of the thriving Water Street District, Oregon District and recently opened Levitt Pavilion is a major benefit.
“When people choose a hotel, they want to be able to walk to entertainment and dining. Getting some of those new support services established downtown makes it pretty exciting. It’s just a natural evolution that as you have these new support services rising up, you have new hotels ... business kind of breeds business,” Baltes said.
Montgomery County has had plenty of hotel space to host major events, said Jacquelyn Powell, president and CEO of the Dayton Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. But when large groups look for a city to host events in, she said they look at how many hotel rooms are available within a three-block radius of the convention facilities.
‘There’s a lot of energy in that area. And I think it is poised for more growth.’ Mariah Gratz CEO of Weyland Ventures on the Oregon District