Hawkeye Hotels building Fairfield Inn in C.R.

CEDAR RAPIDS -- A Burlington hotel chain expects to open a new Fairfield Inn & Suites in southwest Cedar Rapids later this year.

Hawkeye Hotels Inc. is developing the 92-room, four-story property on the southwest corner of 32nd Avenue and Sixth Street SW. The company also owns and operates the former Fairfield Inn property at 3243 Southridge Dr. SW, which has been reflagged as a Red Roof Inn.

"The Fairfield Inn will have a swimming pool, whirlpool, free deluxe continental breakfast and free high speed Internet access," said Ravi Patel, executive vice president of Hawkeye Hotels. "We will probably be one of the first Fairfield Inns to implement the Gen4 prototype, so the lobby will be quite a bit different from other Fairfield Inns. It will be a contmporary, trendy lobby."

Patel said the hotel will have about 20 employees, of which 15 will be full time and five will be part time. Applications for employment are available at the Red Roof Inn.

Patel said required modernization led to the development of the new Fairfield Inn & Suites and the reflagging of the previous Fairfield location.

"We've been Marriott franchisees for a long time and we also develop Hilton and Intercontinental Group properties," Patel said. "Marriott, Hilton and all the big hotel chains ask that you replace your property about every 20 years due to customer expectations.

"The exterior of the previous Fairfield Inn has exterior corridors on the lower two floors. That led to our decision to change it to a Red Roof Inn and build a new Fairfield Inn & Suites."

Patel noted that there hasn't been a new limited service hotel built on 33rd Avenue SW in the last 15 years and there likely won't be many more.

"We've just purchased the last remaining parcel of land for a hotel on 33rd Avenue SW that's just west of the Super 8," he said. "We're going to be breaking ground this year for a Residence Inn by Marriott in the Coral Galleria development in Coralville. We're also planning either a Hilton or a Marriott property off Riverside Drive in Iowa City."

Hawkeye Hotels developed the Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn & Suites off Park Place NE in Cedar Rapids. The family-owned company owns and operates about 30 hotels in the Midwest.

"My father was running a paper route and my mother was working on an assembly line about 30 years ago when they bought and renovated a shutdown 30-room hotel in Arkansas," Patel said. "Over the years, we've continued to grow to become one of the largest franchisees for Hilton and Marriott."

Patel said the location of the new Fairfield Inn & Suites required the addition of a large amount of fill dirt to level the property. He said the expense was worth it in terms of visibility.

"With our front door level with the roof  lines of many of the hotels on 33rd Avenue SW, you can easily see the hotel from Interstate 380," he said.