Another hotel is in the works in Lincoln Haymarket

A decade after developing its first hotel in the Historic Haymarket, Woodbury Corp. is planning to add a neighbor.

The Utah-based company, which helped develop and now owns the Courtyard by Marriott at Eighth and R streets that opened in fall 2012, wants to build another Marriott hotel next door.

The 120-room property would be an extended-stay hotel under the Residence Inn by Marriott banner.

Josh Berger, director of development for Woodbury's Midwest office, said planning is in the early stages for the hotel, which would be built on a lot at Ninth and R streets that's owned by the University of Nebraska. A rendering shows a six-story building that would be roughly 65 feet high.

He called the location "a terrific pole-position site," and said he believes the new hotel will fit into the market nicely because it target is slightly different than guests checking into other hotels in the Haymarket.

Rooms at the Residence Inn will have kitchenettes with refrigerators, an amenity that will appeal to people staying three days or more, Berger said. That could be business travelers, visiting scholars at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln or parents visiting their UNL students.

Berger said it will have common amenities such as a fitness room and business center. He said Woodbury is working with the city to reserve spots in nearby parking garages for its guests.

Though the hotel will be built on land owned by the university, it is not involved in the project.

Berger said Woodbury has a ground lease for the site which the NU Board of Regents approved at its December meeting.

Woodbury paid a little more than $1.2 million up front for a 35-year lease and has three five-year options to extend the lease at $100,000 apiece.

The site is the last piece of vacant property on the block bounded by Eighth, Ninth, R and S streets, which was identified more than a decade ago by Lincoln's Vision 2015 group as the prime site for a potential arts and humanities hub that would potentially have art galleries, a performing arts space, specialty shops and residential development.

It's not clear whether that is still part of the university's plans. Melissa Lee, spokeswoman for the university system, said the proposed arts and humanities block was part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's strategic plan and she couldn't comment on it.

In addition to the Courtyard next door, the Residence Inn would join a Hilton Garden Inn and Hyatt Place as hotels constructed in the Haymarket since work began on Pinnacle Bank Arena.

In 2020, Drury Hotels purchased the block northeast of Ninth and Q streets, the former Journal Star production site, but no development work has taken place.

Because planning is in early stages for the Residence Inn, Berger said he did not yet have a firm timeline on when construction will start or when the hotel might open. Woodbury does plan to seek tax-increment financing to assist with project costs, a process that requires several stages of review and can take several months.