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Fairfield Inn & Suites

Hotels go up as tourism grows in Pasco

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Pasco County’s hotel market is thriving.

Five hotels are either under construction, closing in on a groundbreaking or will open within months.

A new Hilton Garden Inn is the most recent to complete permitting, with a construction start now in the offing.

The 125-room, six-story hotel is rising off of State Road 56, at Maple Silver Parkway.

Hilton Garden Inn is under construction at Northpointe Village, off State Road 54 and Suncoast Parkway. (Kathy Steele/Staff Photos)
Hilton Garden Inn is under construction at Northpointe Village, off State Road 54 and Suncoast Parkway.
(Kathy Steele/Staff Photos)

Another 110-room Hilton Garden Inn at Northpointe Village, on State Road 54 at the Suncoast Parkway, is expected to open in three to four months.

Off State Road 56, an 80-room Holiday Inn Express is well under way, next to the construction site for the Florida Hospital Center Ice sports complex.

The ice complex is expected to open by Labor Day, and play a significant role in boosting Pasco’s sports tourism industry.

Developers of Cypress Creek Town Center, on the north side of State Road 56, are planning a 130-room Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel hotel.

And, Wiregrass Ranch is set to build a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites, also off State Road 56.

The hotel expansion comes as Pasco County is looking at another record-breaking year for tourism, with the county’s cash register jingling with bed tax dollars from hotel stays.

Pasco County’s Tourism Manager Ed Caum anticipates hitting $1 million in revenues from the bed tax, exclusively paid by hotel guests who live outside of Pasco.

To date, he said revenues are about $856,000, a 4.6 percent increase over projections.

Holiday Inn Express will open next to Florida Hospital Center Ice sports complex, off State Road 56 near Interstate 75.
Holiday Inn Express will open next to Florida Hospital Center Ice sports complex, off State Road 56 near Interstate 75.

In the last 18 months, hotel occupancy has been about 72 percent to 75 percent. And, the average daily hotel rate is $8 higher than last year.

“Now there is more demand, so there’ll be more supply,” Caum said.

Pasco currently has about 3,600 hotel rooms. More than 600 rooms will be added from the new hotels.

In 2013, an Urban Land Institute study predicted that Pasco would add about 75 rooms a year through 2020.

By that yard stick, Caum said, “We’re actually ahead of projections.”

While business travelers still fill up most of Pasco’s hotel rooms, Caum said more leisure travelers are coming into the mix.

That market is expected to grow as the county reaps benefits from tourist destinations such as Tampa Premium Outlets, more retail and restaurants at Cypress Creek Town Center, Florida Hospital Center Ice, SunWest Park and TreeHoppers Aerial Adventure Park.

About 6,000 people are employed by the hospitality industry in Pasco, including at hotels and restaurants. Supportive businesses indirectly account for more than 12,000 additional people being employed.

“That’s huge,” said Caum.

Published August 10, 2016

Fairfield Inn planning Wiregrass Ranch location

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Wiregrass Ranch has a mall, a hospital, a college campus, and in the near future — a new hotel.

Developers want to build a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites on State Road 56, on a 91-acre parcel east of The Shops at Wiregrass. It would be located less than a mile off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, and be close not only to the mall, but also to Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel and Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.

Pasco County officials will meet with developers in a non-public meeting next week to hash out some of the details of the project, but it will be located on land that has been used for decades for grazing at Wiregrass Ranch. It’s not clear if developers plan to subdivide that tract of land on State Road 56, or to provide other outparcel amenities, since the 91 acres is far more than the typical 2 acres or so a hotel of this size would need.

The developer, who was not identified in documents filed with the county, has hired Hardeman-Kempton & Associates of Tampa to manage the project, which will include 54,500 square feet of commercial space.

It would be just the second Fairfield Inn in Pasco County, joining a 78-room hotel in Holiday. The chain is considered one of the lower-cost brands operated by the Marriott chain, and locations typically are franchised out.

County tourist leaders want to double Savage Race sponsorship dollars

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The Pasco County Tourist Development Council may feel a little generous next week, especially if the group follows a recommendation to give an event company double the sponsorship money it would’ve normally received from the county.

The intended recipient is Mad Cap Events LLC, an Orlando-based company that is planning to bring the Savage Race back to Little Everglades Park in Dade City for two days. The race, which will be held just before Halloween, is described as “an intense 5- to 7-mile obstacle run with 25 world class obstacles, mud, fire and barbed wire,” according to the event’s website. The race is “challenging fun that will give you and your friends an adrenaline buzz that lasts for days.”

Mad Cap charges participants between $54 and $89 per day of the event, depending on how early they register. That does not include a $15 surcharge added to those prices to cover insurance.

Spectators pay $15 in advance or $25 at the gate, on top of a $10 charge for parking.

The spring race held in Pasco County generated 1,051 hotel room nights, Pasco County’s Office of Tourism Development reported. Because of that, each day could qualify for a county sponsorship of $10,000. Mad Cap, however, wants $20,000, and the Tourism Development Council is being asked to give the company a total of $40,000 — higher than the $15,000 per night starting point usually recommended for events that draw double the hotel room nights.

But there is a good reason to spend the extra money, county tourism manager Ed Caum said in a memo to the council.

“The marketing exposure we receive online with this event has been excellent,” he wrote. “Mad Cap Events LLC markets Pasco County’s Little Everglades Ranch at each of their events around the nation. Further, they have made the commitment for Pasco to be their ‘premier’ race site. (Their) events have become so popular that events in Pasco are held on both Saturday and Sunday.”

Mad Cap does not release revenue publicly, however a September 2012 story in the SportsBusiness Journal reported Mad Cap earned $500,000 on two races the company staged in its first year of operation. Two years later, it had expanded to six states, including Maryland and Pennsylvania, while continuing its presence in Florida.

The Tourism Development Council includes three elected officials — Pasco County commissioner Jack Mariano, New Port Richey councilman Chopper Davis, and Dade City mayor Camille Hernandez. It also includes leaders from Pasco’s tourism market, including Gail Cushman from Days Inn & Suites, Piyush Mulji from Hampton Inn, Kyle VonKohorn of Fairfield Inn & Suites, Toby Caroline of Paradise Lakes Resort, Gregory Riehle of Saddlebrook Resort, and Jack Phethean of Little Everglades Ranch — the venue that will host the Savage Run.

The meeting, which is open to the public, is June 18 at 10 a.m., at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey.