Valhalla Negotiating New Deal for $110M Hotel

TEMPE, AZ-Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. will not fly its Le Meridien flag at the 41-acre Hayden Ferry Lakeside as previously announced. The $110-million hospitality component of the mixed-use development on Tempe Town Lake will be built in partnership with another high-end brand.

“Starwood’s great, but the timing just didn’t work out with them and this project,” says Tod Decker, president of Scottsdale, AZ-based Valhalla Development Group. “We’re still friends and we still like them. But, we had to pull back from their timeframe in an effort to get ours going.” The 240-key hotel and 24-unit residential units, slated for 80 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., are expected to break ground by December.

Decker tells GlobeSt.com that the contract with the new hospitality company will be signed within the coming weeks, keeping the flag’s identity under wraps until the deal is done. If all goes as planned, the hotel should be operational by spring 2011. “This is still a four-diamond hotel and a perfect fit for the development,” he stresses.