Two more hotels planned for U.S. 31 corridor in Hamilton County

Two new hotels are planned for Hamilton County along the U.S. 31 corridor.

A 99-room Avid Hotel is proposed for 13300 N. Illinois St. in Carmel, and an 84-room Staybridge Suites Hotel is to be developed at the southwest corner of 191^st Street and U.S. 31 in Westfield.

The Avid Hotel would be built on 3.4 acres near the northeast corner of Illinois and Main streets. The land is owned by Cincinnati-based CMC Office Center, but Yorktown-based Saamrajya LLC has the property under contract, according to documents submitted to the city of Carmel. The documents didn't specify how much Saamrajya expects to spend on the project, and the developer didn't respond to an interview request.

Avid hotels are a brand of the InterContinental Hotels Group. Others include Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites.

The four-story building would be about 50,200 square feet. As proposed, the first floor would include retail space for up to seven tenants. The first floor would also house the hotel’s lobby, laundry room and exercise room. Hotel rooms would take up the remaining floors.

Yorktown-based Saamrajya LLC would develop the property and has requested two variances from the Carmel Board of Zoning Appeals. The first is a development standards variance that would allow the developer to build just one principal building on the property, rather than two as required by architectural standards for the Meridian Corridor District. The other is a use variance that would allow the developer to run hotel operations on the first floor. The city’s Unified Development Ordinance prohibits hotel operations from occupying the first floor of a building in the Meridian Corridor.

The proposal will considered at the June 19 board of zoning appeals Technical Advisory Committee meeting.

Meanwhile, the Staybridge Suites in Westfield has been approved for construction pending the issuance of building permits.

The 69,000-square-foot, four-story building would be constructed on a 7.36-acre parcel within the Hittle at ThirtyOne Planned Unit Development, which was approved last year and is expected to include two hotels and retail space.

The project is being developed by Pryam LLC, which plans to spend about $14 million developing the hotel, Sonny Patel, manager of Pyram, told IBJ.

The property is adjacent to the 400-acre Grand Park Sports Campus, which draws more than 2.5 million visitors a year. It would be the fourth hotel to be built near Grand Park. The most recent, a Springhill Suites by Marriott, opened in May.

Growing crowds at the sports campus and the privately-owned Pacers Athletic Center, a nearby basketball and volleyball facility, has created a need for more places to stay in Westfield, Daine Crabtree, associate planner for the City of Westfield, said.

“There is a lot of demand for hotels around here,” he said.

Each room will include a kitchenette with a microwave and stovetop. Guests will also have access to an indoor pool, gym, movie theater and laundry facility. The hotel grounds will include a firepit and gazebo.

The project received development plan approval at the June 3 Westfield-Washington Advisory Plan Commission meeting.