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Westfield officials hope a proposed five-story, high-end hotel by South Korean-based Lotte Hotels & Resorts could provide an opening for more business with the East Asian country. City officials are planning an economic development trip to the country in March to explore the possibilities.
Members of the Westfield City Council on Monday night heard an introduction for the 215-room L7 Westfield hotel to be built on 6.5 acres in the Lantern Commons development near the intersection of U.S. 31 and 161st Street.
Matt Skelton, an attorney with Noblesville-based law firm Church Church Hittle + Antrim, told council members that the proposed $50 million hotel would take 12 to 18 months to build, and that construction would begin this fall.
“This is a somewhat unique facility, especially in Westfield,” Skelton said. “Aside from it being a full-service hotel, there will be restaurant facilities within the hotel, a lounge, meeting spaces, and then a separate restaurant venue on the site.”
The project will include the 144,600-square-foot hotel and a 10,600-square-foot commercial space. Los Angeles-based Andmore Partners Inc. will be the architectural firm for the project.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee-based Front Street Partners LLC is the master developer of the 60-acre Lantern Commons project. Front Street is currently developing a 320-unit apartment building, and other retail uses are planned at the site.
“This features some balcony opportunities on upper floors, which aren’t common to a lot of hotels,” Skelton said. “It really is on the higher end of things that one might expect in the way of a hotel development.”
Lotte Hotels & Resorts, the hospitality division of multinational conglomerate Lotte Corp., is the largest luxury hotel chain in South Korea. In recent years, the company has expanded beyond Asia with four hotels in the United States under various brands in Chicago, Guam, New York and Seattle. The firm also has hotels in Japan, Myanmar, Russia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
The hotel will be about 30 miles away from a pair of electric-vehicle battery plants planned in Kokomo by automaker Stellantis and battery maker Samsung SDI that are expected to have a combined 2,800 employees.
Stellantis and Samsung SDI first announced plans in May 2022 to build a $2.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant. The companies announced in October 2023 that they would invest $3.2 billion into a second electric battery plant.
Trade trip funding approved
In a separate discussion at Monday’s meeting, council members unanimously approved a $37,000 allocation for four city officials—Mayor Scott Willis, Director of Economic Development Jenell Fairman, Director of Communications Kayla Arnold and Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations at Westfield Washington Schools Brian Tomamichael—to visit South Korea.
Willis said the purpose of the trip in March will be to strengthen relationships and explore potential economic development opportunities. He added that the group will discuss the hotel and a second opportunity with South Korean officials.
“When I took office, I was looking at what parts of the world could we court and try to get Westfield on their map for potential economic development opportunities,” Willis told council members.
He said the city has “started to get some pings” from South Korean companies that support the battery industry and are interested in Westfield.
He noted that former Mayor Andy Cook focused on Japan during his four terms as mayor. Willis said he would have liked to have continued the same path with Japan, but that Westfield needed to shift its focus after the city lost a planned headquarters for Bastian Solutions, a Carmel-based subsidiary of Japan-based Toyota Industries Corp. In 2022, South Bend-based Holladay Properties withdrew its plan for a development called NorthPoint II following two years of resistance from neighbors.
Bastian Solutions had planned to build a corporate campus at NorthPoint II. Instead, the company announced two years ago it would move its corporate headquarters and build a huge manufacturing plant at a $130 million campus in Noblesville. The 180-acre NorthPoint II received approval last year after a new slate of City Council members took office.
“When you burned a bridge with Toyota, like we did with Bastion, it kind of closed the door, and we were getting signals that right now, it’s too soon, too early, so we need to look at other opportunities,” Willis said.
The $37,000 appropriation approved by council members will go toward flights, hotels and dinners with South Korean government officials and executives from Lotte.
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Unfortunately residents pushed back at the North Point II PROJECT that would of provided housing and a corporate HQ for Bastian Solutions. So Westfield lost out to Noblesville? This is why sometimes politicians have to do what’s best for the city overall and not just for a small minority. The city has to always push for economic development and high paying jobs, Competition is fierce in Hamilton County.