H&LA Vice President, Laurel Keller, talked to the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the new hotels opening in the Cleveland area in 2016. Ms. Keller gives credit where its due, stating the new convention center and the Ohio’s historic tax credit program have more to do with hotel growth in the city than the one-time Republican National Convention set for July. 

By: Susan Glaser
Published: July, 2016

WESTLAKE, Ohio – And one more makes eight – new hotels that is, which have opened in the Cleveland area this year.

A 91-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Westlake opened July 1, just off I-90 on Clemens Road. Among its amenities: complimentary breakfast, complimentary wireless internet access, 1,200 square feet of meeting space and an indoor pool (opening later this month, according to a spokesman).

The hotel opens just in time for the Republican National Convention, which gets under way in downtown Cleveland on Monday, July 18.

“We are sold out for the RNC, but are unable to disclose our incoming group,” said hotel general manager Cindy Eckrich, in an email.

Two other suburban hotels opened last week: the Hyatt Place-Legacy Village in Lyndhurst and the Springhill Suites in Independence.

Contrary to what some may think, the RNC is not fueling this building boom — though the convention may have put some projects on a faster construction schedule, says Laurel Keller, vice president of Hotel & Leisure Advisors, a Cleveland hospitality consulting firm.

Keller attributes the growth in hotel supply in Cleveland largely to the new convention center, which opened in 2013 and has led to an increase in group travel to the city.

One other important motivator, according to Keller: Ohio’s historic tax credit program, created in 2006, which has provided key financial assistance to several downtown projects, including the Drury and the Kimpton.

To read the article on Cleveland.com, click here.