Hotel To Join 'Emerging Market' In Suisun City

Hotel To Join 'Emerging Market' In Suisun City
By Carol Bogart | Daily Republic | February 25, 2008

SUISUN CITY - Visitors to Suisun City will soon have a new option for an overnight stay. Within the next few months, ground will be broken on the Hampton Inn and Suites, a 102-room hotel.

The hotel will be bordered by Lotz Way and Civic Center Boulevard. Its entrance will face Driftwood Drive.

To create a pleasing streetscape as visitors approach the hotel, the city is considering a design that would recast Driftwood Drive as a 'meandering cottage lane.' Economic Development Director Jason Garben called the design a 'work in progress,' and it may be included in plans that are being finalized for the city's Harbor Center Drive Extension Project.

Public Works Director Fernando Bravo said the project's core construction costs are estimated at $800,000. Plans call for full street improvements for portions of Lotz Way and Driftwood Drive, he said, to enhance traffic circulation, pedestrian safety and landscaping.

The hotel is slated to open in summer 2009.

The city's willingness to invest 'a lot of money in creating energy along the waterfront' was a big reason that Basin Street Properties, the hotel's Petaluma-based developer, chose Suisun City for the project, said Paul Andronico, the company's senior vice president.

'We saw Suisun as an emerging market with a downtown that's in the process of being revitalized,' Andronico added. 'They really provide the anchors that allow the private development to go forward and be successful.'

Andronico also pointed out that the involvement of Frank Marinello, a managing partner of Suisun City-based Main Street West Partners, was a key in Basin Street's decision to build in the city. Andronico said Marinello helped find the site and worked with Basin Street on the hotel's design.

Main Street West's Harbor Square retail/restaurants/office space project in the city's Waterfront District is scheduled to open in September.

Reach Carol Bogart at 427-6955 or at cbogart@dailyrepublic.net.