Up next for Columbia's Vista: Another new hotel

A new five-story hotel is on tap for the Vista in downtown Columbia, with construction possibly starting later this year.

Architect Craig Otto says the hotel will be a nationally known brand, though the owner is not publicizing the brand at this time.

The 104-bedroom hotel is planned to be built at the corner of Washington and Lincoln streets, beside the Columbia Police Department headquarters and about a block from the heart of the Vista.

That's a prime location for a new hotel, as hotels in that vicinity have the highest occupancy and highest room rates of any in the city, said Fred Delk, director of the Columbia Development Corp., which guides and encourages downtown development.

The closer a hotel is located to the corner of Gervais and Lincoln streets, the more successful it tends to be, Delk said. The proposed new hotel would sit about 900 feet from that spot.

"That's kind of the middle of the hot hotel market," Delk said. "It's almost inevitable that this is going to be a successful hotel."

The yet-unnamed hotel would include a roughly 1,000-square-foot meeting facility, a fitness room and an outdoor pool, Otto said. There will be on-site parking as well as leased parking spaces in a nearby city parking garage, he said.

Approval of design plans for the hotel was deferred this week by the city's Design/Development Review Commission. Otto said a revised design will be presented to the board next month.

Construction could begin by the end of 2018, Otto said, with a hopeful opening by early 2020.

This story was originally published June 15, 2018 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Up next for Columbia's Vista: Another new hotel."