When it opens next month the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in North Kingstown will be the only hotel located within the Quonset Business Park, a state-owned location that could prove ideal for both business and leisure travelers to South County.
Now wrapping up construction at the center of the industrial park for an estimated $7.5 million cost, the hotel is one of two major changes taking place in the lodging business in Rhode Island. The other is the re-branding of the Radisson Hotel Providence Harbor on India Street to a Wyndham Gardens facility, which took effect March 2.
While the presence of Quonset Business Park, with 164 companies and 8,800 employees on 3,200 acres, virtually ensures that business travelers will be among those staying at the new Marriott, the area’s intensive tourism efforts are likely to lead leisure travelers to the new hotel as well.
“We are very excited about it,” said Myrna George, president of the South County Tourism Council. She cited “an abundance” of nearby tourism attractions that could help fill the new Marriott suites, including the Quonset Air Museum and the Seabee Museum and Memorial Park (all three at Quonset Business Park), as well as the North Kingstown Municipal Golf Course, Smith’s Castle and a 2.5-mile bike path along the park perimeter that opened in 2009.
The hotel will be operated under a Marriott franchise owned by S & S Hotels, based in New Hampshire, and the Waterford Group, based in Massachusetts, according to Mark Stebbins, partner with S & S. He said the hotel is scheduled to open the first week of April.
Noting that some residents and business representatives in the Quonset area have wanted a hotel there for some time, Stebbins said the decision was made to build it because owners believe the area will continue to grow. He mentioned the “good business opportunities” presented by existing Quonset companies and “a good leisure market in the summer” as two key factors in the decision.
“This is a site we feel was underserved,” he said.
“The construction of a privately funded hotel despite the severe global slowdown in hotel development is another strong sign of investor confidence in Quonset,” proclaimed the park’s website (www.qdcri.com). Quonset Development Corporation manages the park.
The four-story hotel of 55,000 square feet will have 104 “eco-friendly” suites suitable for both extended stays and overnight visits, featuring full kitchens as well as living room and bedroom areas. “The average stay in a TownePlace suite tends to be in the two-week range,” Stebbins said. Room rates currently are being set, but Stebbins said they will vary with the season and length of stay, so that the longer a guest stays the lower the rate would be.
The structure has been designed and built to be a LEED-certified facility, in accord with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines. Formal LEED certification usually takes place several months after the opening, but the new TownePlace is expected to qualify, Stebbins said.
As required by LEED, regional and recycled materials have been used in the construction, which began in August, while other environmentally beneficial features include the use of white roofing, the choice of water-efficient landscaping that requires little maintenance and the digging of 16 wells for geothermal heating and cooling, Stebbins said, along with traditional natural gas and electricity services.
Colwen Hotel Management, based in New Hampshire with an office at Quonset Business Park, will be in charge of managing the new facility. Other existing businesses at the industrial park include Electric Boat Corp., Cardi Corp., CB Richard Ellis, Hexagon Metrology and Toray Plastics (America) Inc.
In addition, the government has a strong presence at the business park located on Narragansett Bay, including facilities for the U.S. Coast Guard, the Rhode Island Air National Guard and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Quonset also is home port to the Okeanos Explorer, a research vessel maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in conjunction with the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.
Meanwhile, on the East Side of Providence in the India Point section, the former Radisson on the harbor is now the Wyndham Garden Providence, a change made by The Procaccianti Group in Cranston which owns the site. With 136 rooms, the Radisson opened in 1989.
Ralph V. Izzi Jr., director of marketing and communications for The Procaccianti Group, said the rebranding came about as a result of routine evaluation of the company’s hotels and the brands they represent. He said Radisson and Wyndham Gardens are “fairly comparable” in terms of service level and the scale of the chain, but the latter “offers a slightly more competitive franchise agreement and comprehensive reservations system.” He declined to elaborate.
The hotel will remain geared to a combination of both business and leisure travelers, Izzi said. As part of the re-branding, renovations and upgrades were completed to guest rooms, corridors, lobby and restaurant. Although Wyndham does have a presence in other parts of the state, Izzi said the harbor hotel in Providence is the only Wyndham-branded property in the metropolitan area of Providence and Warwick.
A check of the Wyndham Garden Providence website (www.wyndham.com) reveals the room rates range from $110 per night to $184, depending on the type of room and time of the week reserved. Rates for the Wyndham are slightly higher than the Radisson Providence rates, which ranged from $101 to $159 nightly, depending on the type of room and promotional discounts used. •
