Plainfield OKs $9,500 For Hotel Study

PLAINFIELD, IL — Plainfield will pay $9,500 to Elmhurst-based hotel consulting firm TR Mandigo & Company to look into the feasibility of bringing a boutique hotel to the village. The study will also identify and rank potential hotel sites in Plainfield.

Economic Development Manager Jake Melrose said village staff researched "hotel stay generators" and surveyed local generators like Diageo, Logoplaste and Warehouse: 109, a Plainfield wedding and event venue. Melrose said the businesses generate an average of 30 to 40 overnight visitors on any given weekday. Those visitors typically wind up staying at a hotel 20 to 25 minutes away from Plainfield, according to Melrose.

Director of Planning Jonathan Proulx said bringing a hotel to Plainfield has been a "real point of focus" for planning staff, who have approached several hotel development groups in recent years.

"We're really excited and encouraged that we've had some interest recently," he said, adding that two hotel development groups expressed interest in the possibility of bringing a hotel to Plainfield. Both asked if the village had completed a hotel feasibility study, Proulx said.

"We really think this effort would be a great investment," he added, saying a boutique hotel could be a good complement to the businesses in downtown Plainfield. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

In a memo to village staff, Melrose said hotel groups typically look for towns with a population of 50,000 or higher. The village is just shy of that at around 45,000 residents, and also has limited banquet facilities and other regional draws that typically attract hotels, according to Melrose. However, working in Plainfield's favor is a higher than average median income and those "stay generator" local businesses.

TR Mandigo & Company was one of three firms to submit proposals for the feasibility study. In addition to feasibility and potential locations, the study would look at supply and demand of the regional market; economic development trends of the local market; competitive hotel analysis; estimation of occupancy; and revenue and expense factors.

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