TNB Hotels of Boise will construct a 115-room hotel on this empty lot on Southwest Fifth Avenue in the near future. (The Enterprise/PAT CALDWELL)
ONTARIO – A Boise-area hotel chain plans to build a five-story Marriot Hotel on Southeast Fifth Avenue and Tiffany Street in east Ontario.
TNB Hotels of Boise will construct a 115-room hotel structure, said managing partner Jay Nijjer.
TNB Hotels also owns the Holiday Inn Express in Ontario along with lodging establishments in Tucson, Arizona; British Columbia; Salt Lake City; Meridian, Idaho; and Bend.
The new hotel will be right across from the new Commercial Tire building.
Nijjer said the hotel will create about 35 local jobs.
The hotel will be a combined Marriot Fairfield and TownePlace Suites.
Fairfield by Marriot offers economy, midscale rooms while the TownePlace Suites contain larger rooms with full kitchens.
Ontario Community Development Director Dan Cummings said TNB Hotels contacted his office last September regarding building the hotel.
“I would rate it up there in the top class of being a big asset to the city,” said Cummings.
Ontario Mayor Riley Hill said the addition of the hotel will be good for the city.
“It’s great and I am happy with it,” said Hill.
Adam Brown, Ontario city manager, said the plans for the new hotel underscore how the city is beginning to expand.
“It’s fantastic. The town as a whole continues to grow,” said Brown.
Brown said usually firms such as TNB Hotels, do their homework.
“They’re not going to fail. When they decide to locate someplace they have a lot of marketing teams who do the math and who know what the demand is,” said Brown.
The number of motels in town, he said, is also a key indicator of growth.
“It says a lot about the fact that demand is much bigger than our population might indicate,” said Brown.
Cummings said there isn’t a firm date for the start of construction and Nijjer confirmed dirt probably will not move any time soon.
“It might be a year or a year and half or it might be sooner. There is no date on it,” said Nijjer.
He said the current cost of construction materials may play a role on when the project begins.
“Everything costs so much at the moment, so I think when the market settles down is the best time to build,” said Nijjer.
Ontario is a good location for the hotel, he said, because of its location next to Interstate 84 and the growth around the surrounding area. He said the customer base will be a mix of people traveling through on the interstate and those who seek a place for a long-term stay, such as construction workers.
“It is also a good halfway point between Portland and Salt Lake. You look at the traffic along I-84 and it doesn’t stop all day long. For a town of 12,000 there is a lot of traffic going on,” said Nijjer.
Once built, the hotel will be the tallest in Ontario. The Holiday Inn Express & Suites on Southeast 10th Street is four stories.
The last five-story lodging establishment in Ontario was the Moore Hotel. Built in either 1910 or 1911, the Moore Hotel burned down in October 1995.
News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [email protected].
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