First look at 2 new hotels planned for Butler County

A developer is planning to bring two hotels to the corner of Cox Road and Liberty Way in a project with a total estimated cost of between $30 million and $34 million.

The Fields at Liberty Way, a 13.35-acre development, is likely to include a 98,040-square-foot, 156-room Hyatt House extended stay hotel, and a 68,200-square-foot, 116-room Holiday Inn Express, according to plans submitted to the township.

“Both Liberty and West Chester townships have been extraordinary places to develop,” said Mark Davis, CEO of HiFive Development Services. “(The Holiday Inn Express) will be a five-story building right on the freeway, so it will have exception visibility from not only Liberty Center but from both directions on the freeway.”

Nearly seven acres on the south side of the property will remain for future development.

“We don’t know what that will be but it’s expected to be a mixture of office and retail,” he said.

Site work on Holiday Inn Express, which will be closer to Interstate 75 on 2.2 acres, is expected to start in October and be completed a year later. It will be developed by Beavercreek-based Middletown Hotel Management, which developed Centre Park of West Chester, which was the first new Holiday Inn in the Cincinnati area in about 20 years when it opened in 2015.

Work on the four-story Hyatt House site is expected to start sometime in 2017 and finish in 2018, Davis said.

Property acquisition for both sites is in its final stages, he said. Cost for both hotels, including property acquisition, construction and furnishings is estimated at $15 million to $17 million per hotel, he said.

Plans for the site are scheduled to go before West Chester Zoning Commission July 18, according to township officials. If recommended for approval by the commission, the case would then go before West Chester Twp. Board of Trustees for its approval.

Founded in 2001, Mason-based HiFive Development Services offers architects and design-build construction in the Midwest, serving hotel, church and retail markets in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The project adds to a portfolio that includes more than 20 either newly constructed or renovated hotels in southwest Ohio.

That includes a Hampton Inn that opened in Warren County last month, as well as locations of Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton.

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