Hutto Suddenly Hot For Hotels
Two midrange projects set for Williamson city, others may follow
Austin Business Journal - July 20, 2007 by Kate Harrington ABJ Staff
Hutto’s landscape, dominated by residential development that has fueled the city’s 866 percent annual growth rate, will soon have something other than rooftops going up.
Two hotel chains have bought land in Hutto with plans to build midrange hotels, and several more hoteliers have been making inquiries, city officials say.
For the small city in Northeast Williamson County that has seen its tax base supported largely by rapid residential growth, the presence of its first hotels is a sign that commercial and professional development may be on the way, analysts say.
Austin-based Central Texas Lodging Inc. purchased land at U.S. Highway 79 and CR 119 to build a three story, 60-room Holiday Inn Express that will break ground later this year. Jim Aanstoos, economic development director for Hutto, confirmed that Sam Patel, a landowner out of Waco, also purchased land in Hutto last week with plans to build a Comfort Inn and Suites hotel. Aanstoos didn’t have details on where that hotel will spring up or when it will break ground. Neither Patel nor a Central Texas Lodging representative could be reached for comment.
Dan McDowell, Hutto’s chief building official, says hotel chains ranging from Marriott to Best Western have also talked to Hutto city staff in the last few months.
Randy McCaslin, vice president with PKF Consulting, says the new State Highway 130 has created a corridor with thousands of developable acres along its frontage that will likely draw traffic and development. Hutto’s ability to draw in hotels is also an indication that the city is following a path toward commercial growth beyond retail, he says. “Hutto isn’t a city on the outskirts anymore -- it’s part of the Austin metropolis,” McCaslin says. “You reach a point where there’s enough concentration of activity that you need doctors, accountants, lawyers ... and it starts to get to the point where the city sees enough activity that a hotel could be supported. [Hotel chains] are banking on the growth of the city itself.” Although Hutto is still dwarfed by some of its neighbors, the city will nonetheless be able to support smaller hotels like the Holiday Inn Express because of traffic coming up SH 130 from Austin’s airport and the planned developments that will contribute to the city’s growth and draw people off the highway, McCaslin says.
A planned mixed-use development called the Crossings of Carmel Creek will span 469 acres in Hutto near SH 130 and U.S. 79, and will bring about 1.5 million square feet of retail, hotels, park space and entertainment to the area, says Tom Sineni, president of United Commercial Realty San Antonio, the company in charge of the development’s leasing. Aanstoos says plans for the development could include up to five or six hotels, but Sineni says the developers aren’t having conversations with prospective tenants yet.