From Nick Castaneda’s viewpoint, Lincoln doesn’t have too many hotel rooms. It has too many hotel rooms of a certain type.
That’s why he plans to develop something unique to Lincoln -- a hotel with lots of Nebraska influences and nothing cookie-cutter. Maybe even heated bathroom floors.
“Small details matter,” Castaneda said.
Plans for the Kindler Hotel at 11th and P streets, and two other hotel projects in the works downtown, fit into a nationwide trend toward one-off lodging experiences. And all three projects promise something new to Lincoln’s rapidly expanding hotel marketplace.
Since 2015, 635 new hotel rooms have been added to the Lincoln market, mostly on the city’s fringes, for a total of 5,357 hotel, motel, and bed and breakfast spaces, officials said.
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Of those rooms, about 1,200 are downtown and in the historic Haymarket, where the new focus is the boutique hotel niche.
* In December, owners AJ Capital Partners closed the 16-story, 231-room Holiday Inn Downtown to begin a $7.5 million renovation of the property. It will reopen this summer as the Graduate Lincoln, part of a chain of college-town hotels reflective of each community’s unique character.
* A new building planned for Ninth and O streets, likely rising 14 or more stories, would include a mix of two hotels and upscale condominiums. The $65 million project would add 200 hotel rooms to the market, including a Holiday Inn Express and a yet-to-be-named boutique hotel brand.
* Castaneda’s project calls for 34 new hotel rooms, a renovated Commercial Club ballroom and other improvements in a $10 million redevelopment.
In his role as executive director of the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau, Jeff Maul works daily to sell the city to travelers. He said he’s heard from some that the boutique hotel market is the only thing it's missing. Castaneda, who lives in Arizona but whose wife, Brooke, is from Lincoln, agreed.
They’ve named the new Lincoln hotel for Brooke's father, Ken Kindler, a Lincoln artist who died in 2014. Some of Kindler's artwork will be used as design elements in the hotel. The project’s designer will be looking to tie in other Nebraska features, and guests will notice other local touches. For example, guests might be able to order Ivanna Cone ice cream or treats from Colby Ridge.
By definition, boutique hotels are intimate in size and individual in nature.
“A boutique hotel strives to be one-of-a-kind, and has an independent attitude,” said Karen Tina Harrison, a luxury travel expert. “Its clientele is individualistic, too.”
Location is key, with boutique hotels typically nestled in the middle of the action. In Lincoln’s case, the three boutique hotel projects are within a three-block area near the Haymarket and University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
Since launching in 2014, Graduate Hotels has opened properties in many of the nation’s iconic college towns. Its locations include Ann Arbor, Michigan; Athens, Georgia; Charlottesville, Virginia; Madison, Wisconsin; Oxford, Mississippi; and Tempe, Arizona. In addition to Lincoln, Graduate Hotels are in the works near campuses in Berkeley, California; Bloomington, Indiana; Richmond, Virginia; Minneapolis and Seattle.
Ben Gottlieb, vice president of acquisition, told Inside Higher Ed last year that the Graduate Hotels concept began somewhat by accident. When the company overhauled a Days Inn in the Chicago area into the Hotel Lincoln, many of its first guests had ties to nearby DePaul University.
“A light bulb went off,” Gottlieb told the website. “We saw an underserved niche.”
Research firm IBISWorld last year said boutique hotels grew at 5 percent a year from 2011 to 2016. That growth can be attributed to a certain segment of travelers looking for a unique experience.
The high-rise planned for where Knickerbockers was at Ninth and O -- potentially the third-tallest building in the city -- will have Holiday Inn Express guests staying on some floors and boutique hotel guests on others. The group developing the project -- Hotel Land Investments LLC -- is led by the Lincoln Hotel Group and includes Lincoln firms Speedway Properties and Nelnet.
Many boutique hotels are independently owned, but the industry’s mega brands, too, have noted the trend and attempted to provide something unique amid an inventory where every Marriott or Hilton room looks like any other.
Holiday Inn has its Hotel Indigo, Marriott has its Autograph collection and the Starwood Hotels lineup includes Element and Tribute.
Boutique hotel guests are often those willing to pay a little extra for unique comforts. That could be the business traveler or guests looking for leisure.
With only a few dozen rooms, Castaneda said it’s conceivable that an entire wedding party or a band playing at Pinnacle Bank Arena could fill the Kindler Hotel for a weekend.
And there are always Husker fans coming to town, especially with seven home football game weekends guaranteed.
Said Castaneda: “I’ve had enough calls already to fill the entire season."
