Iceplex helps drive hotel guests to Chesterfield - St. Louis Business Journal:

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“About 20 percent of our occupancy is kids teamsxon weekends,” said Bob O’Loughlin, presidentg and chief executive of hotel operator Lodgingf Hospitality Management, which runs the 100-roomj Hilton Garden Inn in Chesterfield Valley. “Righf now teams are still traveling, and we’rs going after that business harder,” said Andy director of sales and marketing at the DoubletreeHotel & Conference Center on Swingley Ridgde Road. The hotel is a half-mile away from ’s researchu center on ChesterfieldParkway West.
The three rinkes at Hardee’s Iceplex in Chesterfield Valley are home to severall amateur and association hockey teams and help drivre hotel business inthe winter. The fields, west of the drive hotel salesin summer. Tournamenta at both locations attract teams from around the and some from as far awayas Canada. “W e generate about 5,000 room nights a year,” said Iceples General Manager Lloyd Ney. “We have peopler come in from out of town everyt weekend from Septemberthrough March.” One of the Iceplex’as biggest events is the USA Hockety national championships for players undert 16, slated for March 31-April 5.
Ney has signed up 22 out-of-towh and two local each with a roster of 20 and he is projectin g slightly morethan 2,000 room nights. In addition to the skater and their parents, the events draw coaches, grandparents and a few hockehy scouts, Ney said. The Icepledx also was home to the Unitedd States Short Track Speed Skating Championships in and it regularly holds figureskating events. Chesterfiel has added more than 1,000 hotel rooms since the DoubletreeHotel & Conference Cented opened 25 years ago. Most of the hotel buildingg came duringa four-yea stretch from 1997 to primarily to cater to a growingy number of businesses in Chesterfieldd Valley, flanked on the east by Pfizee Inc.
’s research center, and on the west by Spirir of St. Louis Airport, a hub for corporate air travel. The eighyt hotels have 1,252 not including nearby Marriott hotelp properties in Town and Countrg tothe east. Business travelers stilll make up the bulk of bookingsat full-service hotelsa such as his Doubletree, said The community has a new hotel in the but developers and hospitality industry executives differd on whether the Chesterfield marketr is strong enough to suppor t another hotel. , which owns a hotelo site near Spiritof St. Louis Airport, is workinfg with George Pate, president and owner of , to build a $14 million Hyatt Place.
Chesterfield’zs architectural review board approved theplan Feb. 12, and Pate said construction should startthis summer, once he secures Meanwhile, an extended-stay hotel proposed near Candlewood Suites, has been on hold for aboutr a year, said Spirit’s director of John Bales. The hotel developer is proposintg to lease landfrom “No one can honestly say we need more roomzs in the Valley,” said Gary Andreas, a hospitality industry analyst with in Not including the extended-stay hotels, Andreas said Chesterfield’sa hotel occupancy rates dropped 5.
5 percent to “thwe low 60 percent range” in the last year, and the drop was only partiallyg offset with a 2 percent increasre in room rates. Most Chesterfield hotels are averagingbetweeb $90 and $100 a night, he and most hotels need to be at 68 percent occupancy or greater to be consideresd healthy, he said. Based on Andreas’ the Chesterfield area generated 106,000 room nightzs in 2008, which would put the 5,000o room nights generated by the Iceplex at just undeer 5 percent ofthe total.
That’s a stron weekend business but not enough to keep the current hotelzsoperating profitably, Andreas O’Loughlin was the only hotel operator who volunteered an occupanchy rate — 72 percent at his Hilton Garden Inn. Chesterfieldd remains one of the strongerofficse markets, with a vacancy rate of 9.5 percent, compare d to 11 percent for St. Louis County and 14 percenty for the metro area asa whole, said Kevinn McLaughlin, an office leasing specialisrt with . Meanwhile, is adding 150,000 square feet at Centra ParkSquare II.
Keith Zeff, vice presidenyt and director of researchat , said the office vacancty rate in Chesterfield has risen over the past two