Saline Pays for Study of Downtown Hotel

The Saline Economic Development Corporation is funding a study of the feasibility of a downtown hotel.

The board voted 6-3 to approve a motion to spend $1,500 on the study, which will be conducted by Hospitality Advisors.

Mayor Gretchen Driskell said the idea has been talked about before. She said she’d be more welcoming of a hotel downtown than on the outskirts of town.

“Ideally, we would see a hotel downtown. Our downtown is really small and the economy is fragile.  A successful hotel might bring a lot of visitors and foot traffic to downtown businesses,” Driskell said.

Driskell said she understood concerns about government taking a role in something that would ultimately be a private enterprise, but said she believed it is the role of government to facilitate and help business along.

“Conducting this study is a great way for us to show we are interested in a hotel,” she said.

EDC board member Gene Corfman questioned the need for a hotel, pointing out that there’s a hotel in the city of Milan.

“Every time I drive by there, I don’t see any cars in the parking lot,” he said.

Driskell, however, said the hotel that might work for downtown Saline isn't the same kind as the Milan hotel, which is located near U.S. 23.

Business Development Association board president Cindy Czubko said her board batted the idea around and was comfortable with it.

“I think we’re going to get valuable information without spending a lot of public dollars,” she said.

Czubko told the board about a hotel that was developed in the city of Monroe.

“It was designed so that if the hotel business flopped, it could easily be transformed into condos,” she said. “So there are different ways to handle a project like this.”

Hospitality advisors will survey potential sites to determine their suitability for a hotel. The firm will establish criteria appropriate for such a development and recommend a preferred site based on the criteria, analyze economic characteristics and market potential, review the type and styles of facilities that will accommodate market demand, estimate levels of demand and occupancy, and prepare a prospective financial analysis for expected levels of utilization for the hotel.

The work should be completed four to six weeks after it begins.