Hotels Follow Business to City

In addition to the Hilton Homewood, the other business hotels slated to open in the city in the coming months are Marriott TownPlace Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriot. With the addition of the 510 new rooms, Rancho Cucamonga's inventory will rise to 720 rooms.

City officials see new hotels both as a driver of and a response to business expansion and tourism. Twenty-five major firms have opened offices in Rancho Cucamonga in the last 10 years, adding nearly 4,000 jobs, and in 2003 and 2004 the city's job growth rates were 8.4% and 10.5%.

The new business class hotels will fill a need for companies in Rancho Cucamonga that have visiting clients and will help the city's efforts to attract new businesses, Daniels says. She notes that the area also needs hotel rooms to accommodate tourists.

The demand for tourist lodgings is expected to increase when a planned cultural center opens at the Victoria Gardens shopping center. The Victoria Gardens Cultural Center, which is scheduled to open next summer, will house the 540-seat Lewis Family Playhouse, a full-service library and Celebration Hall, a multipurpose event venue.

Homewood Suites chose Rancho Cucamonga for its location near the Ontario Airport, its growing corporate and industrial base and the growing tourism market, according to Dean Manternach, regional VP of Tharaldson Lodging. Tharaldson owns Hilton Homewood Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard Marriott.

The Hilton Garden Inn is scheduled to open in mid-January and the Courtyard Marriott by March. Holiday Inn Express and Marriott TownPlace Suites plan to open in December.