Westfield puts Grand Park hotel on hold

The five-story hotel once proposed adjacent to the Grand Park Events Center has been put on hold.

In November 2015, the Westfield Plan Commission discussed a proposal from Bryd Hotel Enterprises, an affiliate of Jonathan Byrd’s, for a 180-room hotel (see accompanying image) on 5.26 acres of city-owned property to the west of the indoor soccer arena on 191st Street.

The city had issued a request for proposals in June 2015 and, after receiving six responses, began moving forward with the one from Jonathan Byrd’s, which through an affiliate manages the events center.

The hotel had been expected to open by July 2016, to align with the peak of the summer sports season, but construction never started.

“We’re not stopping, but we’re pausing,” Grand Park Director William Knox said. “There’s a lot of [hotel] inventory coming online.”

At the time the city was working with Jonathan Byrd’s on the dormitory-style hotel, only one hotel project had been confirmed in Westfield—the 125-room Cambria Suites near Grand Park—and only one hotel was already open in the city.

But the Cambria Suites project was slow to get started. Cleveland-based Ceres Enterprises LLC and The Orlean Co. announced plans for it in 2014, but construction still had not started by summer 2015, which prompted city officials to consider trying to land a hotel within the Grand Park campus, Knox said.

In December 2015, a 93-room Hampton Inn was introduced. The $12.2 million project received approval and broke ground last year near U.S. 31 and State Road 32.

The $17 million Cambria Suites project also started making progress and is under construction now.

So now the city isn’t certain they need a hotel at Grand Park because they don’t want to oversaturate the market, Knox said.

Hotels also could be part of several ongoing developments in Westfield, and hotels continue to be proposed in surrounding Hamilton County communities.

Knox told a crowd at a recent Westfield Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the hotel project still is being contemplated, but it’s not a priority right now.

“Not to say that it won’t happen, but we’re just trying to do it at the right time,” Knox said.

The hotel that had been proposed for the campus, known as “The Haven at Grand Park,” would have included a front desk, mail room, kitchenette or breakfast area, lounge, laundry operations, pool, exercise room, office area and parking.