The Kentucky win will put the Dallas-based hotel group in charge of the proposed 225-room Wyndham Louisville Airport, a "north of $30 million" undertaking that had the top hoteliers in stiff competition for the Louisville Regional Airport Authority project. Negotiations began in spring 2003 as a field of many was pared to "two or three," Matt Sparks, Wyndham's vice president of development, tells GlobeSt.com. "You can safely say it was virtually all the major competitors."
The Louisville International Airport project, readying to break ground, will open in early 2006. The hotel is connected to the main terminal and includes more than 12,000 sf of meeting space. The project, as would be expected, "was not easy to get done. It was a lot of hard work from all sides or it just would not have happened," Sparks says of the city's high-profile development.
The second contract was a quietly negotiated win arising from two years of talks and rooted in a business relationship between Wyndham's Fred J. Kleisner, chairman and CEO, and an owner of the proposed $22-million, adaptive reuse project in the 700 block of West Main Street. The CBD project, set for completion in fall 2005, will convert five adjoining historic buildings, built in the 19th century, into the 90-room Wyndham 21C and 4,000-sf contemporary art museum, set to house the personal collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steven Wilson, local entrepreneurs and principals for the development company, the West Main Museum and Hotel LLC. The project will feature a signature restaurant, lobby bar and fitness center in a design by renowned architect, Deborah Berke of the New York City-based Deborah Berke & Partners Architects LLP.
About two years ago, Wyndham set a course to grow the brand by management contracts instead of bricks-and-mortar acquisitions. With a Kentucky win that includes several renewal options, the flag now flies in 30 states. "Our agreements with these two prominent Louisville organizations will provide a strong base for Wyndham's entrance into the Louisville market," Kleisner said in a press release.
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