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United Kingdom-based IHG Hotels & Resorts is seeking to build a 113-room Atwell Suites hotel in Fishers, but hurdles remain as the project goes through the city’s review process.
Plans call for the four-story, 70,000-square-foot hotel to be built on 1.67 acres at the southwest corner of Minden Drive and Erlen Drive in Saxony Village, a 450-acre mixed-use development on the city’s north side near Interstate 69 and Olio Road. The hotel would be built near the southeast shore of the 20-acre Saxony Lake and north of a residential area.
Atwell Suites is the newest brand established by IHG, with three hotels open in Denver, Miami and Austin, Texas, and about 20 additional hotels in development, according to the company’s website.
The hotel would be developed by Fishers-based Striving Legacy Partners LLC at an estimated cost of $12 million to $15 million. Striving Legacy Partners is owned by local hotelier Mitesh Patel, according to documents filed with the city.
If the hotel receives approval from the city, construction would begin in early 2025 and the hotel could open in spring 2026.
Members of the Fishers Planned Unit Development Committee discussed the Atwell Suites hotel at their meeting Wednesday afternoon, and some committee members expressed disapproval about the design plan for the hotel and how it fits in Fishers and Saxony.
The PUD committee previously reviewed the Atwell Suites plan at its May 1 meeting, and members provided suggested changes to the building’s exterior that they wanted to see.
The changes included adding an entrance to the east side of the hotel, installing large windows on the east-side walls of the fitness center, creating a consistent brick masonry color across the entire ground floor of the building on all four sides and other alterations.
Mindy Westrick Brown, an attorney with Indianapolis-based Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, told PUD committee members that IHG understands it needs to be compliant with Fishers and Saxony’s architectural standards. However, she said the Atwell Suites brand has its own look that IHG wants to maintain.
“This is a brand-new hotel type,” she said. “And so IHG had a lot of requests to protect the brand and the prototype as they’re bringing what I think is the fourth hotel to market. They wanted to make sure that they had some say in that.”
However, Fishers Director of Economic and Community Development Megan Baumgartner, who serves on the PUD committee, said she does not believe the architecture fits the character of the overall Saxony development.
“While there have been changes, I still feel that what has been changed is not significant,” she said.
Committee member Pete Peterson, who also serves on the Fishers City Council, said he is not currently in support of the design plan for the hotel.
“I get the fact that you’ve got a brand and you [have to have] brand-consciousness,” he said. “I also get the fact that you’ve got to be in compliance with the character of the area, so we’re kind of at that impasse.”
Committee member Shawn Curren, president of Lawrence-based Curren Architecture, said he prefers the current design to what was presented in May but would like to see more changes.
“I think there’s been a huge amount of improvement from the last presentation to now,” he said. “I think there’s potentially some additional improvement that could be made.”
PUD committee members voted to continue discussion at a future meeting to provide more time for additional architectural changes.
If the hotel receives approval from the PUD committee, it would not require any additional approval from the city and the project could then go ahead.
However, if PUD committee members vote to reject the plan for the hotel, the petitioner would need to go back to the Fishers Plan Commission for approval. And if the Plan Commission rejected the plan, the petitioner could then go to the Fishers City Council for a final decision.
While a hotel is a permitted use in the area, the Atwell Suites hotel has garnered remonstration from some area residents, and some audience members cheered when PUD committee members suggested they were prepared to vote against the project.
According to documents filed with the city, a petition signed by residents of the Saxony, Brooks Chase and Avalon neighborhoods had 430 signatures from residents who were against the hotel and 13 signatures from residents who support the project.
They argued the project is too close to a daycare facility, a park and many Saxony homes, and that it would increase traffic, congestion, noise and trash.
Westrick Brown noted the opposition from residents in her presentation to committee members. She said the hotel would be the first commercial project in what will be a block of commercial projects.
“We understand that neighbors don’t want a hotel at this location, but it’s an approved use at this specific location, which is in a mixed-use designation, so it’s going to be surrounded by potential other commercial uses,” she said.
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