Oct. 16—Westfield Mayor Andy Cook announced Wednesday the development of a Cambria Suites and Hotel, the first hotel to be built near the city’s Grand Park.
Construction on the hotel, on 186th Street across from the 400-acre sports complex, is expected to begin in March, said David Crisafi, president of Ceres Enterprises, one of two investors in the project.
Set to open in March 2016, the 150-room facility is intended to house people in the city for the national and regional sports tournaments Cook hopes Grand Park will attract. The hotel also will include a restaurant and 5,000 square feet of conference and meeting space.
The hotel is the kind of development Cook said he hoped to attract with Grand Park. More than 800,000 people have visited the park already in its first year, exceeding expectations.
The facility has 26 baseball diamonds, as well as 31 fields for soccer and football. Plans have been announced for buildings that will house indoor soccer fields and basketball courts.
Cook said that before Grand Park’s soft opening, Westfield lacked a distinctive industry to bring in new businesses and diversify the tax base. The opening of Cambria, Cook said, will double the city’s hotels overnight. A Rodeway Inn and Suites is at East 151st Street and U.S. 31.
Cambria likely will employ 35 to 40 people, Crisafi said. It will be the second Cambria in Hamilton County, after one built by Ceres near Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville.
Ceres and Orlean Group, both based near Cleveland, together are expected to invest about $18 million in the development, Crisafi said. The two companies are also considering building hotels in other Central Indiana locations.
Cook said he does not expect that the city will invest in infrastructure for the new hotel.
“We’ve made our investment,” Cook said. “About $45 million across the street.”
While Cook said Grand Park is meeting its goal of broadening the city’s tax base, his critics have expressed concern whether a sports complex in a largely undeveloped area north of Indianapolis can attract enough business to make it worthwhile.
In August, the Westfield City Council approved a $6 million loan to the Grand Park project, which had gone over budget because of upgrades, problems with contractors, and sponsorships not meeting expectations.
The lone dissenting vote was by Cindy Spoljaric.
“I’m happy about the hotel. That’s what Grand Park was supposed to be built for,” Spoljaric said. “We’ve put all of our eggs in that basket there.”
But, she said, she is concerned about spending too much city money through funding and tax incentives for developers building additions to the sports complex.
The only way the park is valuable, she said, is if the development around the complex attracts enough development to offset the costs of Grand Park.
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Call Star reporter Michael Auslen at (317) 444-6077. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelAuslen