Extended stay hotel planned in Coralville

Ground will be broken today in Coralville for the first Home2 Suites by Hilton extended stay hotel in Iowa.

Owned and operated by former University of Iowa wrestler Lincoln McIlravy and his wife, Lisa, the hotel at 740 Coral Ridge Ave. will have 102 suites. The mid-tier hotel will offer complimentary Internet, breakfast and parking, community spaces, and suites with fully-equipped kitchens.

The McIlravys own the 81-room Comfort Suites at 214 W. Ninth St. in Coralville and the six-story 95-room Homewood Suites by Hilton at 921 E. Second Ave. in Iowa River Landing.

The couple also are in the early stages of planning a 100- to 120-room hotel near a proposed 7,000-seat, multiuse arena in Iowa River Landing. The arena, with an estimated cost of $45.9 million, would be part of a three-building complex that also would house a sports medicine clinic and an athletics field house.

The Home2 Suites joins other hotel projects planned for Coralville in coming months.

Ground has been broken for a 102-room Springhill Suites Hotel on the corner of 25th Avenue and 10th Street. The Coralville City Council also has given approval to site plans for a 92-room Fairfield Hotel by Marriott, which will be owned by Hawkeye Hotels.

Drury Inn & Suites, a family-owned Missouri-based chain of hotels, has announced plans for a 180-room hotel on First Avenue near Iowa River Landing. Construction is expected to begin in March 2017 on the chain's second location in Iowa.

Coralville expects to add about 550 rooms to its hotel stock over the next few years. The community's hotels generated more than $2 million in hotel/motel tax revenue - nearly triple the approximately $800,000 generated in Iowa City and North Liberty.

That number is estimated jump to $2.7 million this fiscal year, more than double the $1.1 million estimated to come from Iowa City and North Liberty hotels.

Gazette reporter Mitchell Schmidt contributed to this story.