Builders finally broke ground at the La Quinta Hotel in Mercury Village, one of two prominent hotel projects that have come to Durango in the past two years.
Located at Translux and East Turner Drive, the three-story structure will open up another 96 units to lodgers.
Weather and creating the proper stormwater management plan thus far have been the only hurdles for the project, and project architect Doug Wright estimates the foundational slab should be in place by November, with a completion date set for late spring 2016.
“Location to the river walk system and the zoning was a key element,” Wright said.
“It’s a challenging environment to find available land that meets zoning and other requirements, but we wanted it here because of the synergy and everything being in walking distance. We wanted to be as close to downtown as we could.”
Durango’s tourism industry, among other factors, has piqued the interest of three other developers who want to add to the city’s lodging inventory.
A Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott is underway at the U.S. Highway 160 and 550 intersection and is expected to open up with 81 rooms next year. Framing should be complete in a month.
Durango’s hotel count is nearing 40 now, including the two in progress. Only in the past year has there been a resurgence in lodging projects in the community. In 2014, the Holiday Inn & Suites and the Homewood Suites became the first new hotel developments in Durango since 1997.
Bob Kunkel, executive director of the Durango Area Tourism Office, estimated the city’s hotel occupancy rate is around 70 to 80 percent and the inventory is approximately 1,800 rooms.
Kunkel noted that hotel developers watch for consistent occupancy rates, which is why Durango has attracted multiple lodging developers in recent years. The local hotel industry and tourism in general sees two 30-day slow seasons each year, once in the spring after the slopes close to skiers and again in autumn pending the first snowfall.
“We call it a 300-day tourism industry,” Kunkel said. “When the summer tourists with children go back to school, the demographic changes. It gets older, and they tend to spend higher because they can visit nicer restaurants and galleries. Then there’s a lull, and then we start skiing.”
As these hotel projects come down the pipe, La Plata County’s voters may eventually consider an increase to the lodgers tax, which is currently set at a relatively low 2 percent for visitors in city hotel rooms and 1.9 percent for county stays. Most of those revenues go toward attracting more visitors.
“This adds new inventory and will definitely help with the lodgers tax,” said Durango Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jack Llewellyn. “And putting a hotel on the south end of town will be the first thing people see heading into town from (U.S. Highway) 550 south, which will be helpful.”
Two additional projects have come before City Council, including a Spring Hill Suites near Mercury Village. The owners are based in New Mexico, and architect Taffazul Hussain said Durango’s visitors largely dictated the location.
“I think it will do well against its competitors because of the tourism and the great views from there, because it will be so close to the Animas,” Hussain said. “And the owners know the business.”
Eighty-five percent of the rooms in the three-story building will have a river view. Project developers expect designs on the 97-unit Spring Hill Suites to be finished by December with construction beginning at the end of January 2016 pending city approvals.
As the other three projects make headway, there’s still no action at Second Avenue. Scott McCallister, the developer for the proposed Downtown Durango Hotel, obtained city land-use approvals over a year ago for a two-hotel project and parking garage in the 400 block.
The controversial proposal has drawn criticism for its size and height, location, intrusion on residents and traffic impact, but McCallister said financing is holding up the groundbreaking.
He hopes to get the still-tentative project moving in 2016.
jpace@durangoherald.com
