Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Holiday Inns find fertile ground

Holiday Inn Express has plans for three hotels in the county. The first will open in early 2006. The hotels are "great news," says a county tourism official.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published August 26, 2005

Hernando County is about to become a hot spot for Holiday Inn Express.

The hotel chain plans to open three locations here over the next two years.

One at the corner of Twin Dolphin Drive and State Road 50 has broken ground and is slated to open in the first quarter of 2006.

Another on U.S. 19 at Centerwood Avenue is breaking ground in the next week or so with an opening date estimated for fall 2006.

And a third, near the intersection of SR 50 and Interstate 75, is on tap for a groundbreaking in fall 2006 with an opening set tentatively for the fall of 2007.

"I think it's great news," county tourist development coordinator Sue Rupe said this week. "It gives me more hotels to partner with."

It's also more proof that the county is growing - especially on SR 50 right now, from Mariner Boulevard to Barclay Avenue to the Brooksville on- and off-ramps to the Suncoast Parkway.

"I think you've got the combination of the tie-in with Barclay, the Parkway, the Mariner interchange, which has been very successful recently," said Mike McHugh, director of the county's office of business development. "It's a central location that's attractive from a retail and commercial standpoint.

"But having a hotel there is new for us."

The three hotels will add more than 200 rooms to the 600 rooms in the county right now.

Feasterco Construction is building the hotel on SR 50 at Twin Dolphin Drive and the one on U.S. 19.

They are the 20-year-old Ocala company's first jobs in Hernando.

"There hasn't been much reason to go down there," said Feasterco's Michael Cougill, who works in Ocala but lives, actually, off Barclay Avenue. "You know what I'm saying?"

But that has changed.

The Twin Dolphin location looks right now like two stories of concrete blocks. By the end of the year, though, it should look like a bona fide Holiday Inn Express, Cougill said.

When it's done, it will have 60 rooms, spokeswoman Monica Smith said from the company's Atlanta headquarters. The U.S. 19 location is going to have 73 rooms. The I-75 location is supposed to have 72.

Holiday Inn Express bills itself as "the mid-priced hotel for value-oriented travelers." Rooms go for $60 to $90 a night, depending on the market and the season. It's also the fastest-growing hotel brand in the industry, opening an average of two hotels a week.

And now three are coming to Hernando.

"It's just a function of our growth," McHugh said. "The numbers are increasing. There are more heads in beds."

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 01:36:21]