Two new hotels coming to Kokomo's south side

Jan. 18—Two new hotels are coming to Kokomo's south side.

A Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel will be built at 5126 Clinton Drive. The hotel operator, Bharat Patel, chairman and CEO of Indianapolis-based Sun Development & Management Corporation, received development plan approval from the Kokomo Plan Commission last month.

Per the plans and Ryan Rediger, of the surveying and engineering company Stoeppelwerth & Associates Inc., the hotel will be four stories high, though the exact number of suites was not discussed at the December Plan Commission meeting. A message left for Rediger seeking more details on the project was not returned.

The current building at 5126 Clinton Drive — formerly the home of Ultimate Place 2-B, a bar and strip club, and more recently the Dusty Trail Saloon, a bar and concert venue — will be demolished and replaced with a parking lot, Rediger said. Demolition of the building and construction of the hotel is expected to begin this year.

The hotel will sit just east of the parking lot on what is now empty land. Rediger added that there will be about 20 parking spots east of the hotel as well.

Launched in 2009, Home2 Suites by Hilton is one of the newer brands created by the hospitality giant. Each Home2 Suites hotel typically has around 100 suites that, contrary to standard hotel rooms, include both a bedroom and living area.

FAIRFIELD INN HOTEL

Another hotel, a Fairfield Inn by Marriott, will be built at 5148 Cartwright Road, located just south of the aforementioned hotel and just north of Kokomo Fire Department Fire Station 2.

According to Wyatt Johnson, of Tipton-based 40th Parallel Surveying, the hotel will be four stories high and face north. The number of rooms was not detailed, but Johnson said the current plan is to construct a road through the property off of Cartwright Road and in line with Kentucky Drive that would lead to a courtyard in front of the hotel and parking located on the hotel's west, north and east sides.

Johnson added that evergreen trees will be placed on the east side of the property approximately 25 feet apart to serve as a buffer between the hotel and the residential homes along Orleans Drive to the east. Construction is expected to begin this year.

The hotel will be operated by Muhammad Chaudhry, who also owns and operates the recently opened Holiday Inn Express at 5101 Cartwright Drive. Johnson said Chaudhry's vision is to eventually build a third hotel just north of the Fairfield Inn that would face south, though the details and development plans for the potential third hotel have not been designed.

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.