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The Dispatch wrote
Boutique hotel suggested
Saturday, January 12, 2008
BY MIKE PRAMIK AND MARLA MATZER ROSE
A funky novelty store predating the Greater Columbus Convention Center and today’s trendy Short North may play a key part in the future of both.
The owners of Yankee Trader have enlisted a real-estate broker to seek a buyer who will convert their aging brick building at 463 N. High St. into an upscale hotel.
The downside: The potential development could hurt plans for a larger, convention-style hotel being considered a block away on property controlled by the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, local officials said this week.
Yankee Trader co-owner Lynette Howard said she’s not planning to close the quirky store, known for Halloween costumes, rubber eyeballs and plastic rats. But she says she might move.
Comments
- Rmoiii: Where are the photo's of the current construction going on in the short nor
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
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Yankee Trader Building may become Boutique Hotel
By: Walker
Related Posts:
oh, one other thing. the hotel issue isn’t just about how many rooms you can provide within one mile of your convention facilities. size matters. my company has an annual conference that could only be held at the Hyatt because we need 400 rooms in one hotel that in convention center adjacent. to have another comparably sized hotel increased your options for larger conventions. something like the RNC doesn’t care about whether the hotel rooms are in one or twenty hotels, but many corporations do.
I am not knocking the convention center, or what it brings to our city, Walker. I am one of those businesses that directly sees the effects of a big convention coming to town. I could be proven wrong, but I have to assume a company needing 400 adjacent rooms is a pretty rare occurrence.
To be totally open, my customer would be more likely to stay in the boutique hotel than the Hyatt, so I would like someone like that around the block to work with more closely. But, I still think it’s fair to ask how often the hotels are full. I don’t see how that shouldn’t be considered when you’re talking about adding another one of these hotels. If they are just going to be pulling from the same market share, what’s the point?
Columbus and Ohio have played a very important role in the presidential elections the past few years. I’d say we had a very strong chance if we were able to accommodate the crowds a bit better.
I agree with you. We don’t have nearly the number of rooms to accomodate a convention that size. If we did, I’d bet we’d be a shoe-in.
I think it’s a fair question to ask too. I just don’t have an answer for you.
Here’s some links to a few articles from the past:
From here: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2007/02/27/20070227-C1-03.html
(Note: This article is about a year old)
John R. Holmes, executive director of OFA, a floriculture association now with a national membership, said Columbus? hotel mix has been the biggest problem for the group in an otherwise happy relationship with Columbus. The OFA brings more than 10,000 people to the convention center each summer, generating an estimated $10 million for the local economy, Holmes said.
“It costs us north of $60,000 each year to operate shuttles from the convention center, because we take up rooms all over Downtown Columbus,” Holmes said. “The loudest complaint from our customers has been the hotel issue. It?s not just the quantity, but the quality and location that?s a problem.”
From here: http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2006/08/24/20060824-F1-01.html
(Note: This article is almost a year and a half old so I don’t know if the info below is accurate for today):
Belfrage said adding hotel rooms could help the overall market Downtown because of the new convention business the city could go after. “If you look at some of the lost (convention) business for Columbus and the reasons, it?s clearly the bookable rooms,” Belfrage said. “There would probably be some adjustment with new full-service hotel rooms coming online. But I think in the long run, it will benefit everyone if Columbus is more competitive.”
I think it’s a fair question to ask too. I just don’t have an answer for you.
I think another vital statistic would be not just how often they are full, but how often their business models *expect* them to be full. As a matter of simple common sense, no hotel can be 100% full 100% of the time (both because of the natural ebb and flow of events and because that would be a clear signal to any other chain that the market needs a new entrant, fast).
Most hotels have a fair number of rooms standing empty most of the time. What would be really interesting to know is what the “danger zone” is for hotels around GCCC. We can assume that 10% vacancy is probably no cause for alarm, but is 20%? 30%? 40%?
I think it’s a fair question to ask too. I just don’t have an answer for you.
I think another vital statistic would be not just how often they are full, but how often their business models *expect* them to be full. As a matter of simple common sense, no hotel can be 100% full 100% of the time (both because of the natural ebb and flow of events and because that would be a clear signal to any other chain that the market needs a new entrant, fast).
Most hotels have a fair number of rooms standing empty most of the time. What would be really interesting to know is what the “danger zone” is for hotels around GCCC. We can assume that 10% vacancy is probably no cause for alarm, but is 20%? 30%? 40%?
What hoteliers look at is revenue per available room. It gives a better picutre of the hotel’s situation. It combines average room price with the occupancy rate. So if you can get away with charging enough, you can weather a couple of low occupancy months. I bet hoteliers in places like Sandusky have extremely high vacancy rates during the winter, yet they still get by quite nicely.
Really? Which ones? I didn’t get that at all from the article.
The Yankee Trader building, the Char Bar, and that strip, are all part of a historic district.
I believe the article mentioned it being an 8 story boutique hotel. One would assume that since none of those buildings are 8 storys, there has to be a proposed demolition. Or alteration so radical that it will fundmentally change the character of the building.
My question is, who’s actually going to develop a hotel on that space, because it’s not as if that isn’t a major investment.
I’m partial to Kimpton Hotels and we really enjoyed staying at their one on Park Ave. in NYC. Their rates on regular room are $400/night though, so even sweet priceline deals are only going to be had for $200/night.
They had the cocktail hour and everything, free fruit and whatnot. :wink:
Wonder where all our enterprising Fisher grads are. We’re supposed to have one of the best hospitality-management programs in the nation (complete with our own operational hotel right there as part of the business college for training). Not saying that there aren’t some good ideas and good boutique chains out there that could flourish in Columbus, but I wonder if some of our own people might not have some original ideas for a small or midsize classy hotel for that space.
I’ve found that most of the boutique hotels in Manhattan do a really good job of showcasing the area’s artists, a lot of them specific to the neighborhood of the hotel. One of my favs is Hotel Roger Williams.
My family is coming in October for the Columbus marathon and I would love for them to have a neat place to stay that’s close to my house, close to the race, but has some personality. This location would be perfect and hopefully within financial reason since The Lofts is just a little over the top for an extended stay. I need them to fall in love with the neighborhood before they see my street, deem it unsafe for a single gal, and immediately ship me back to TX :)
Oh, I forgot, just FYI…the hospitality mgmt program at OSU isn’t tied to Fisher. The hotel is on Fisher’s campus and used as exec MBA housing, but that’s the only tie between the two. The degree is actually offered by the College of Education.
And I believe part of the worry for Columbus is that our competitors – (Charlotte, Louisville, Austin – just to throw out some random cities) are building more (& bigger?) hotels. So they’ll be better positioned to go after conventions that have these kind of facility requirements. If Columbus doesn’t keep up, the bigger conventions will go elsewhere, and we could start losing the tourism dollars they bring in.
The Chambers?
And I believe part of the worry for Columbus is that our competitors – (Charlotte, Louisville, Austin – just to throw out some random cities) are building more (& bigger?) hotels. So they’ll be better positioned to go after conventions that have these kind of facility requirements. If Columbus doesn’t keep up, the bigger conventions will go elsewhere, and we could start losing the tourism dollars they bring in.
If the other cities are building more and bigger hotels, then they really aren’t competing with us for our medium sized conferences. Their moving up opens our current market for us even more. The pressure to build more would lead to the pressure attract larger conferences. When would that stop? I’m all for increasing our economic base, but where can these convention hotels be built that wouldn’t turn the neighborhood into a generic wasteland?
And I believe part of the worry for Columbus is that our competitors – (Charlotte, Louisville, Austin – just to throw out some random cities) are building more (& bigger?) hotels. So they’ll be better positioned to go after conventions that have these kind of facility requirements. If Columbus doesn’t keep up, the bigger conventions will go elsewhere, and we could start losing the tourism dollars they bring in.
If the other cities are building more and bigger hotels, then they really aren’t competing with us for our medium sized conferences. Their moving up opens our current market for us even more. The pressure to build more would lead to the pressure attract larger conferences. When would that stop? I’m all for increasing our economic base, but where can these convention hotels be built that wouldn’t turn the neighborhood into a generic wasteland?
Just having more hotels doesn’t guarrantee capturing conferences. You have to have the transportation structure to support it. I don’t know how many more people you could actually put through CMH without actually redesigning the airport. It’s certainly not designed to handle large numbers of travelers like a lot of the major airports in conference heavy cities.
Really? I was under the impression that CMH was already fairly good-sized and had room to grow.
Supposedly the airport is going to be completely revamped by 2012:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Columbus_International_Airport#Future_infrastructure
I’ve not heard anything on this in awhile, so I’m not sure if they’re still on the same timeline though.
http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/
The above link takes you to the joie de vivre chain of boutique hotels in San Francisco and the surrounding areas. I have stayed in the Kabuki, and it has a Japanese theme. Really nice hotel, and close to all the tourist spots and public transpotation. One (I think the Rex) has a movie theme, with each room done up with a different movie as a theme. They play free movies in the lobby every night. Some have an art theme, and each one is done in a different art style, etc. The rates are REALLY reasonable at $140 a night–and that’s in CALIFORNIA!! Why can’t something like that be done here, especially the art-themed hotel, because we are an arts town. I think lots of people would come here from surrounding small towns in Ohio to visit Columbus if we had more interesting places to stay. Of course, it may not help the convention thing, but an eight story boutique hotel isn’t really small, either. Most of these hotels in SF were smaller than that. It just gives people another option when visiting Columbus rather than staying at a chain they’ve been to before. They are also a progressive hotel chain, giving back to their community. From their website..
“Joie de Vivre Hotels is a grass roots organization that strives to have a positive impact on our community. Each of our hotels is dedicated to donating at a minimum $200 per guest room per year to organizations in their communities. Examples of these donations include gift certificates for hotel stays or dinner for two at one of our restaurants, donating meeting space and food to a non-profit for fundraising events or meetings, organizing an event to raise money for an organization, donating employee hours for time volunteered, or cash donations.
At the Acqua Hotel, we celebrate good health through joyful living and education. As part of this celebration, we have partnered with To Celebrate Life Cancer Foundation and Youth in Arts.”
I think this would fit into the ShoNo or downtown very well.
[quote=]
Just having more hotels doesn’t guarrantee capturing conferences. You have to have the transportation structure to support it.
Sounds like light rail from the airport to downtown would solve part of the problem.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
BY MARLA MATZER ROSE
Columbus is losing convention business, a decline that’s even affecting its strongholds of state associations and religious groups.
Hotel-room bookings for future meetings were down more than 30 percent in 2007 compared with 2006, said Brian Ross, vice president of sales for Experience Columbus, the area’s convention and visitors bureau.
The state associations that make up 70 percent of Columbus’ convention business are finding more options and rotating locations instead of coming to Columbus each year. Meanwhile, new pros-pects say that they’re bypassing Columbus because it’s not an attractive destination and it lacks enough full-service hotel rooms around the convention center.
“Central Ohio was the mainstay for a lot of our state groups,” Ross said. “Now, Cincinnati has overhauled its convention center, and we’re hearing groups saying they’re going to Kalahari (an 800-room water-park hotel) in Sandusky. These groups have more options now, and they’ll have even more if Cleveland goes forward with a new convention center.”
Paul Astleford, chief executive of Experience Columbus, said in regard to larger groups bypassing Columbus, “It’s clearly a hotel issue. We’ve talked about this before, but it’s punching us in the face now.”
A 500-room hotel across from the convention center is in the planning stages, but it still lacks financing or a developer. Convention center authorities are trying to reach agreement with the city and county over funding.
READ MORE
Not that much room to grow crowds in the existing structure, I’ll wager. I’ll give it two big pluses, and one that is that it’s usually too empty to present much of a problem when travelling. Never fails that I can get there with minimal time before a flight on any average day and still get to the plane on time. I’ve only once got stuck in a line there, but that has more to do with a utter lack of crowds on a daily basis than good internal logistics. Two, it’s a hub for southwest which makes flights cheap on a general basis. I like its services well enough, but I wouldn’t really want to spend a layover there. And when I did get stuck in a line, it was a brutually long one since they’ve only got two scanners for any one terminal. :x
Then again, most of my airport experience comes from outbound flights out of OIA, which is kinda like the Mall of America of airports.