CATHY ALLRED - North County Staff | Posted: Sunday, September 17, 2006 11:00 pm
Thanksgiving Point has announced it will build three hotels within three years.
The Hilton Corporation quietly broke ground in August for a Hampton Inn with 76 rooms scheduled for completion in spring 2007. A Marriott Hotel, SpringHill Suites, is planned for completion in the summer of 2007, said Mike Washburn, Thanksgiving Point Institute's president and chief executive officer.
A Marriott Residence Inn is also planned for the area.
The approximately 2-acre Hampton Inn project is being built on Thanksgiving Way (West Frontage Road) and Executive Way, northwest of a proposed Maverik gas station and the entryway to Thanksgiving Point Business Park, the resort's golf course and The Gardens.
Tori Roberson, brand communications manager for the Hampton Inn at its corporate office in Memphis, Tenn., confirmed construction had begun.
"I think it's a great development not only for Thanksgiving Point but north Utah County with visitors for Xango, Cabela's, IM Flash Technologies," Washburn said.
Marriott International's 94-room SpringHill Suites Hotel, catering to tourists for an average five-day stay, is planned for property immediately north of The Emporium Village on Thanksgiving Way.
"We're excited. We know there are other properties in the marketplace, but we think that Lehi is ready for this facility," Dick Fields, Utah Spring-Hill Suites vice president of operations, said. "We have already been approved. SpringHill Marriott International has issued a franchise to us to build a SpringHill Suite there in Lehi."
The hotel will hire 22-25 people and provide larger than normal hotel rooms with kitchenettes.
Plans for a second, smaller hotel for business travelers, a Marriott Residence Inn, are under way for the southeast corner of Clubhouse Drive (State Road 92) and Ashton Boulevard.
"After we get the SpringHill open and running, the second property will be announced," Fields said. "We are going to look at the market and then decide."
Greg Gagon, vice president for development at Thanksgiving Point, is positive the numbers will be there when Marriott International studies the market for the second Marriott hotel. "With Xango coming on with two big office complexes and the technical college (Mountainland Applied Technology College) coming in, we think the need will be there and will move it forward," he said.
Other development at Thanksgiving Point includes a residential project adjacent to its golf course with 350 units valued from $250,000 to $900,000. Of those units built by Highland Homes, Village Communities, McCarther Homes and Gold Medallion Homes, 130 have been sold.
"Those are the critical things right now and we're excited to have those," Gagon said of the residential and business projects.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A6.