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Ashland's hotel space will grow By TONY BOOM ASHLAND - Nearly 200 hotel rooms are being added over the next year to 1,200 already available in this tourist destination. Developers of three new properties all admit that the rapid growth could create an oversupply. But each says that offering unique features and serving niche markets will enable them to prosper. Best Western Windsor Inn opened a 33-room addition the first week of July on a site near the town's south freeway interchange. In mid-September a 65-room Holiday Inn Express will open on Clover Lane just a block from the Windsor Inn. By May, Plaza Inn and Suites at Ashland Creek will open with 91 rooms on Helman Street in downtown Ashland. "It's saturated now. Someone is going to suffer for it," said Jonathan Warren, owner of the Windsor Inn. He's owned the Best Western Bard's Inn downtown for 15 years. He purchased the building that became the Windsor Inn in 1999. Large rooms (many with kitchens), convention facilities and landscaping will help attract customers, says Warren. The 33 new rooms join 64 existing rooms. There will be two convention spaces. At 3,700 square feet, the largest convention space can accommodate up to 400 people. Warren has spent about $3 million on the addition. Buggsi Hospitality Group of Lake Oswego will operate the Holiday Inn Express. The firm has 15 other franchise hotel properties in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. "Where we are located on the freeway, we will get a good mix of folks going to the festival and downtown, and pass-through traffic," said Buggsi Patel, adding that all the new construction could result in an oversupply of rooms. A & A Construction and Development of Spokane, Wash., is working on a project that the city approved in 1991. A & A purchased the site from Lloyd Haines a year ago. The building will feature two levels of underground parking and two levels with hotel rooms. "The downtown location will help a lot," said A & A partner Chris Ashenbrener. "People can park their cars and not have to touch it until they leave." Earth has been excavated for the project but it is at a standstill awaiting a city building permit. The building will cost between $7 and $8 million, said Ashenbrener. The Hotel Group of Edmonds, Wash., will manage the hotel. Other hotel managers don't think the new rooms will diminish their business. "We have a very loyal clientele," said Cedarwood Inn manager Ginger McGuire. "We don't expect that our business will slow down." She foresees similar results at the Rodeway Inn and Knights' Inn, which are owned by the same family. "I don't think it will impact my business a whole lot simply for the fact that we are an economy hotel, they are more middle-class," said Randy Nelson, manager of the Super 8 Motel across the freeway from the Windsor and Holiday Inn Express. Windmill's Ashland Hills Inn, across from the Windsor, has 230 rooms and suites. The historic Ashland Springs Hotel, which opened after extensive renovation in November, offers 70 rooms downtown. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.