Published: December 19, 2006 08:19 pm            

Dora Bros. to renovate Tribune Building into extended-stay Candlewood Suites with Terre Haute Children's Museum

TERRE HAUTE — A developer already investing in one downtown hotel believes that the time is right for a new hotel right across the street.

His company is spending the money to prove it.

The Dora Bros. Hospitality Corp., which will manage the Hilton Garden Inn-Terre Haute House at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue, also will manage a Candlewood Suites, which will be built on the other side of Wabash Avenue. Tim Dora, a partner in the company, was on hand as the project was announced at the Tribune Building at 721 Wabash Ave. on Tuesday morning in Terre Haute.

“I noticed that there was no extended-stay product in this market,” Dora said during the announcement. “It’s a very growing product.”

The extended-stay hotel will not be alone in the project. The Terre Haute Children’s Museum will occupy three floors of a new building next to a renovated Tribune Building. The top three floors of the new building, along with the Tribune Building, will house the new extended-stay hotel.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, with the new Candlewood Suites to open in spring 2008. The Children’s Museum is slated to open in August 2008.

Dora said that a firm analyzed Terre Haute to see if an extended-stay hotel would be a good fit. He added there were some concerns about the downtown location because of a lack of entertainment venues, which Dora feels can be overcome.

Vigo County currently houses 1,805 hotel rooms, which includes the Hilton Garden Inn-Terre Haute House and an additional hotel that have yet to open. But the new, 99-room Candlewood Suites fills a niche, and the quality of the rooms will help ensure their success, said David Patterson, the executive director of the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau of Vigo County.

“It will raise the bars for those other hotels [in the county],” Patterson said, “and so consequently they’ll either sink or swim from there.”

The city of Terre Haute is contributing up to $2 million for the project. A $1 million loan backed by funds in the downtown tax increment finance district, or TIF, is for the hotel project, which is estimated to cost $8 million.

The city will spend up to $1 million more from the Economic Development Income Tax fund to match up to $1 million in new contributions for the Children’s Museum.

During the announcement, museum board chairman John Thompson said that a foundation has donated $100,000 to be matched by city funds.

Thompson said after the announcement that the museum has $2.9 million — which includes the $1 million commitment from the city — of the $4.7 million needed for the new project.

Terre Haute Mayor Kevin Burke was impressed that the public and private sectors teamed with a not-for-profit in the new project.

“That’s an amazing level of cooperation,” Burke said, “and I tell you what … when people start cooperating together and working toward a common goal, there’s no stopping them.”

Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com.

        

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