Hoosier hospitality: an update on Indiana hotel groups.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: HOTELS

BUSINESS TRAVEL MAY be down, but Indiana-based hotel groups are investing for the future.

Dora Brothers Hospitality Corp., Fishers, continues to build its Indiana footprint, with 17 hotels now and several more planned to open through 2011. "We have the small mid-market range with the highest level of service we can give," says Julie Garrett, corporate director of sales.

Dora has two IHG brands, including its newest, Hotel Indigo, which caters to folks that drink Starbucks and shop at Borders and Pottery Barn, says Garrett. Dora is the first to develop this brand in Indiana and opened two locations early this year, the 85-room Hotel Indigo in Columbus and the 115-room hotel in Fishers. By 2011, it plans to have six Hotel Indigos in the state. The Bloomington Hotel Indigo, across from the convention center, breaks ground in the spring and should be ready in fall 2009. A site is being sought for an Indigo near the Indianapolis Airport, says Garrett, with construction planned for next year, and the company will build another one north of its own Hilton Harden Inn in Carmel in 2010.

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The sixth Hotel Indigo in Dora's plan will go up in 2011 in its cluster of hotels in downtown Indianapolis near Lucas Oil Stadium dubbed City Centre Hotels. A total renovation of the Holiday Inn Express is complete, and two new hotels, the extended stay Staybridge Suites opened in May 2008, and the Comfort Suites opened in August. With the addition of the Hotel Indigo, Dora will have about 550 rooms in the cluster by 2011. "Whenever we build a hotel we have an expansion plan with it," says Garrett. "We can add on to any."

Dora also plans to open a 113-unit Staybridge Suites by next summer in Trader's Point on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Their other recent openings or in-the-works properties around the state include a 99-suite Candlewood Suites opened in Terre Haute in September and a Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites to open there in 2009. Also slated to open in 2009 are Candlewood Suites in Bloomington and Columbus, and a Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Greenfield.

Dunn Hospitality Group, Evansville, is a 30-year-old family company that has owned and operated 30 hotels over the years, but has sold off most of them in the last four years and now has seven properties, including Hampton Inns and a Holiday Inn Express. "We're literally rebuilding," says David Dunn, president and COO. "We're looking for new opportunities." Dunn...