Uptown Marion has the capacity to support an upscale, 80- to 90-room hotel, according to the first phase of a feasibility study commissioned by the city.
Marion deputy city manager Kim Downs provided an update on the study at the council’s Feb. 18 work session, indicating that the city has a “strong market” for an uptown hotel.
That finding was reached, Ms. Downs said, after in-person discussions with “about 20 different members of our business community,” along with another 17 business leaders contacted through other means.
The study, commissioned by the city in December, will now move into a second phase, which will include identifying possible sites for an Uptown Marion hotel. That phase should be completed in about a week, Ms. Downs said.
Marion currently has four hotels – a newly-opened, 93-unit Holiday Inn Express and Suites in the burgeoning East Town Crossing development at the intersection of Highways 13 and 151, on Marion’s east edge; a 59-room Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham on Dyer Road; and an 88-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott at 2823 Seventh Ave, on Marion’s southwest edge; a 106-room Best Western Plus Longbranch Hotel, located at 90 Twixt Town Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids, which technically has a Cedar Rapids address, but Linn County designates its location as Marion.
The new hotel would be the first in the city’s Uptown district, which has grown rapidly in recent years with the addition of several new businesses and a comprehensive streetscape project.
Ms. Downs said the consultant developing the study, Jessica Junker of Core Distinction Group, “has several years of background in doing these types of studies,” and will consider the number of existing hotel rooms, both in Marion and in surrounding communities, along with the ages of current properties and their corporate affiliations, in developing her final report.
“It’s about viability,” Ms. Downs said. “There’s a lot of different things that she takes a look at, that then – along with the information that we receive from doing interviews and surveys – show the demand and what the need is, to help us move forward.”
