Michael Mullenix, chairman and CEO of the Equis firm, tellsGlobeSt.com that this property, in the Clayton submarket, is aninfill location that was very difficult to get developed. "We hadtwo other companies before us attempt development on this site, andwere not successful," Mullenix says. "The key to our site for thehotel was that we could share the parking burden with Lionstone,which has office building. There was no way we could have workedthe parking requirements for each development without doing this,the office needs spaces during the day and the hotel has the use atnight." The development plans include two parking garages to holdup to 663 cars.

Also, the reconstruction of Interstate 64 held up seriousconsideration of development, Mullenix says. The state is closingI-64, up to and past this property, during the work. "While underplanning, the state had big cloud on the area, everybody was afraidthe state was going to take the land, so the development wasdelayed indefinitely," Mullenix says. He says the planning is over,and the interstate work should be done in two years, about the sametime as the mixed-use project is finished.

He says there was going to be only one hotel on the site. "Weneeded to put in more rooms than originally planned, so instead ofone hotel we went for two, one specializing in extended stay, whichis a desperate need in Clayton, and an upper tier, where we landedthe Westin flag," Mullenix says. "The barriers to entry aredifficult here, so it's not too bad a market here now. TheDowntown, with its renaissance going on, has seen more rooms comein. The battle here is high union construction costs, and makingaverage daily rates bridge that gap. It's too early in this economyto see if there will be an impact, but so far it looks good for St.Louis."