Downtown Indianapolis hotel industry continues growth, could boost tourism
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOfficials will cut the ribbon Tuesday morning on the InterContinental Indianapolis Hotel, which is adding 170 hotel rooms to downtown Indianapolis’ inventory. Visit Indy is projecting a rise in tourism numbers as the amount of hotel rooms grows.
Indianapolis-based Keystone Group spent $120 million to renovate the historic Illinois Building at 17 W. Market St. into the luxury 170 room InterContinental.
“InterContinental and IHG Hotels are really interested in Indianapolis. They just see the demand here. They see the convention business, the sporting business, the concert business,” Zachary Lockett, InterContinental Indianapolis’ Director of Sales & Marketing, said. “For us, our target is to look at the VIPs for those conventions, the C-level executives, the top sponsors, entertainment that that group may be bringing in…that’s kind of our place in the convention market.”
FROM IBJ: See inside the InterContinental Indianapolis
Visit Indy Executive VP Chris Gahl tells Inside INdiana Business there have been 1,000 new hotel rooms added in the last five years. The Aloft also opened last month, adding 128 rooms, bringing the downtown market to 8,784 rooms.
“We’re anticipating over the next four or five years, around 2,300 additional rooms being added to our city skyline, anchored by 800 rooms across the street of the Pan Am Plaza, [the] Signia by Hilton,” Gahl said. “We feel to grow tourism, we need to grow not only the convention center, but also our hotel offerings. And we feel from a tourism perspective, there’s a nice mix of different types of hotels entering our marketplace, from a true convention center headquarter hotel like the Signia to boutique brands like InterContinental, which reaches a very affluent, travel-prone audience.”
The Signia by Hilton will add more than 800 rooms to downtown. The IBJ reported that the project’s anticipated cost had grown 14%, from $501 million to $571 million.
2024 was a record year for Indianapolis tourism. Last year, the city recorded nine of its top 10 days for hotel bookings, largely attributed to events like the National Eucharistic Congress, Gen Con, the total solar eclipse and Taylor Swift’s three-night stop at Lucas Oil Stadium. Visit Indy did not share where each of those events ranked individually.
“We’re at a very healthy place as it relates to having enough hotel rooms currently offered in our inventory, our occupancy and our average daily rate is extremely competitive and healthy. However, without adding these [rooms]…we would not be able to grow and even maintain current tourism levels,” Gahl said.
More than $1 billion in hotels and associated projects are under construction or set to begin in the next 12 months. Another several hundred million dollars’ worth of investment is under consideration or in the planning stages.
Last month, the Indianapolis International Airport announced board approval for a $206 million hotel project.
The Westin Indianapolis Airport, planned for construction directly west of the airport’s existing parking garage, is expected to comprise 253 rooms at a starting rate of about $245 per night. It will feature a fitness center, a full-service restaurant and a seventh-floor bar, lounge and restaurant offering limited service.
The hotel would also have about 10,000 square feet of meeting space and a passage connecting the terminal to the hotel through the third floor of the parking garage. There would also be 120 parking spaces dedicated to the hotel itself.
The property is set to open by late 2027.
IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey contributed to this story.