Ho-Chunk Capital, the Winnebago Tribe’s real estate investment and management company, and Omaha, Nebraska-based Hart Family Hotels are bringing an Avid Hotel by IHG to Downtown Sioux City, Iowa.
Avid Hotel—a new brand by Holiday Inn Express—will play a key facet of the $13.5 million mixed-used development project underway at Virginia Square. It will be among the first Avid Hotels in the nation. The first Avid Hotel opened in Oklahoma City, and it’s owned and operated by Champion Hotels, the largest privately-owned hotel operator in the U.S.
The $7.4 million, four-story Avid Hotel, featuring 87 rooms, is forecasted to open in January of 2020. Construction is set to begin in April.
Virginia Square is midway through development, housing modern, industrial-style condos in a renovated building; Keller Williams real estate firm; as well as office space, and the upscale Table 32 restaurant.
“Once the Interstate project is complete, the downtown are will be teeming with activity,” Dennis Johnson, the chief investment officer for Ho-Chuck Inc., told the Sioux City Journal.
The hotel will particularly benefit from traffic to the Siouxland Expo Center. “[T]he need for the hotel rooms will be there,” said said Renae Billings, Business Development Coordinator for Sioux City Economic Development, reported KTIV.com.
The Virginia Square development, including Ho-Chunk’s co-owned hotel, is helping Sioux City gain pace to rival the attractions in Omaha and Sioux Falls, Johnson noted.
“I love the that Virginia Square mixes both commercial properties with residential space,” Johnson told the Sioux City Journal. “I also love that older building are getting a second life while standing next to new construction.”
