Many people would like to be able to joke and tell their friends, “I slept in a jail for two days,” student Maddie Warndorf said. “So, it’s got that aspect to it as well.”
Council members and the audience watching the presentation chuckled at the novelty of making that boast.
Even families might be interested in the unique hotel opportunity, perhaps with slightly roomier pods for them, said Warndorf, Aly Mechlem and McCala Kreimer, all seniors in Butler Tech’s visual arts program, who offered a visual presentation to city leaders.
Such ultra-inexpensive hotel pods are becoming popular around the world, especially in China, they said, adding the pods would be ideal for artists or others visiting some of the city’s many art attractions.
The idea was popular among fellow students they surveyed as part of Katie Powers’ probability and statistics course.
“Should Hamilton renovate the old jail cells into hotels?” Kreimer asked during the presentation. “Seventy percent of the students said yes. I feel like this percentage should have been higher, if they knew exactly what we were meaning by renovating it into a hotel room. If we’d shown them pictures, I feel like it definitely could have been higher.”
"Would you stay in a hotel made out of a jail?" Kreimer added. "Seventy-five percent said yes, and I think that is really interesting, because, again, like Maddie was saying earlier, people want the historical aspect, and I feel like that's what they would want, too."
The jail rooms would not only create another hotel option for the city, Mechlem said, but also: “It’s going to help spread the word about Hamilton, because it’s definitely kind of a new idea, and if a city does something that’s a completely new idea, it spreads the word about it.”
With the building's lower level already being renovated into Municipal Brew Works micro-brewery, expected to open in mid-April, the jail hotel would put the rest of the building to good use, the students said.
Mayor Pat Moeller praised the Butler Tech students for the hotel jail and other concepts offered, such as a downtown shop that would serve only healthy foods and drinks.
“The ideas that the Butler Tech students have are amazing,” Moeller said. “They’ve come to council I think three times, under the leadership of their teacher, Katie Powers. She and her students have done a great job of giving us these concepts, and the one about the hotel, a few rooms in the old municipal building, is a neat idea.”
“I think they really have broadened our ideas about what could possibly happen, and so it does serve a purpose to council, to hear what these young people have in mind,” Moeller said. “We’re enthusiastic when we hear from them.”
Brandon Saurber, the city’s director of strategy and information, said Hamilton officials haven’t explored the building-code, zoning or security implications of such a hotel.
“We’d probably need to identify a management group,” Saurber said. “I don’t think the city would staff that for 24 hours … If there’s an operator out there that’s interested in it, give us a call.”
Powers said the students in her class come up with their ideas, collect data, “and then use that data to help shape their ideas, which is what a typical business owner would do, and get feedback, so they can make different decisions about their business.”
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