Council approves two new hotels
Council approves two new hotels
By Jerry W. Kram
There has been a lot of interest in New Town ever since the oil boom started booming. From journalists to geologists, from land buyers to home builders, it seems like everyone wants to get a birds eye view of what’s happening in the Bakken. There’s only been one problem. We haven’t had anyplace to put them. Often people attending meetings or events in New Town have had to base themselves out of Minot or Williston – or even Bismarck or Dickinson – because that was the closest hotel or motel room available.
If all goes as planned, New Town will have many more rooms to offer next summer. New Leaf Development, a company that has opened one hotel in Watford City and has another about to open, had their building permits for a regular motel and an extended stay hotel approved by the New Town City Council on July 17. Developer Brett Erdmann said he plans to start construction on the lots just east of Alco within a month.
“The site includes eight acres in a new plat called the East Side Addition,” Erdmann said. “Within that there are five lots.”
Erdmann told the council that the Little Missouri Inn and Suites will be a traditional motel where people will stay for a night or up to a week. The three story structure will 83 rooms and will include a pool and meeting room.
“It will be your typical hotel like a Holiday Inn Express,” Erdmann said.
The second lot will have a 103 room extended stay hotel that will rent rooms by the week or month. All the rooms will have a full kitchen, including cookware and dishes. The hotel will have a lounge that will also offer a light food menu.
The other two lots will be home to fast food restaurants. Erdmann said he couldn’t say if any national franchise restaurants were interested in the area yet. But he did say that one of the restaurants will probably be a burger place. The final lot will be used for a holding pond to control runoff from the development.
