A 10th hotel is coming to Cedar Park, another is interested in becoming Leander’s first hotel, and development leaders in both cities hope the facilities will usher in economic benefits.

Seven hotels currently operate in Cedar Park—the Bungalows Hotel & Event Center, Motel 6, Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Candlewood Suites, Comfort Inn, Best Western Cedar Inn and La Quinta Inn & Suites. Three more hotels are in development or under construction, Economic Development Director Phil Brewer said.

A Hampton Inn & Suites is planned in the Cedar Park Town Center near Discovery Boulevard along with a SpringHill Suites that is under construction by Costco. A Staybridge Suites is also planned on RM 1431 at Arrow Point Drive, across from Serrano’s, Brewer said.

The SpringHill Suites will have 85 rooms, meeting room space, a full bar and outdoor space, and it is scheduled to open in November, said Doug Denman, president of Worth Hotels LLC, which is developing the hotel. He said the developer expects the city to continue to grow and attract a mix of corporate and leisure travelers.

“We chose to develop a SpringHill Suites in Cedar Park because we saw an opportunity to become part of a great community and provide a hotel product that contributes to the vision of creating a place where people want to be,” he said.

Leander is in the planning stage of its first hotel, and officials would not reveal the hotel owner. Economic Development Director Mark Willis said it could be located on US 183, across from the Capital Metro Leander Station train stop and behind the H-E-B Plus location.

Willis said a hotel would allow visitors easier access to the future St. David’s Emergency Center and Austin Community College campus as well as senior living apartment complexes in the area. He said it would make it easier for people to do business in Leander.

“[The hotel] allows us to have more events up here, and the more exposure you get—[the more] people come up here and see what you’ve got to offer—the better off you are,” he said.

The hotels also offer the cities more tax revenue through the hotel occupancy tax, or HOT. The state hotel tax rate is 6 percent of the cost of a room, and cities can impose an additional local hotel tax, according to information from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. 

Leander has not yet established a local hotel tax, but once a hotel opens in town, Willis said having the tax would help pay for costs such as the Leander Pop Up Market and various festivals.

Brewer said Cedar Park adopted the maximum local hotel tax rate of 7 percent, and the hotels are running at a 75 percent occupancy rate. He said as more hotels come to the area, that occupancy rate is likely to rise.

“We’re generating more HOT tax [revenue], and the HOT tax can be used for lots of different things, not only for bringing other events into the community and for funding cultural arts and programs in the city,” he said.

Brewer said having more hotels in Cedar Park increases the city’s ability to attract larger projects, such as events, conferences and small conventions.

“We’ll be able to accommodate some of these smaller association meetings and regional association meetings in these hotels,” he said.

Officials at developments such as the Hampton Inn said they hope to provide that service for customers. The hotel is planned to have approximately 109 rooms and should be ready to break ground early next year, said Bhav Patel, the developer with KM Hotels. He said the developer chose Cedar Park because of the population growth and higher-end retailers moving into town.

“North Austin continues to grow up, and we think that it’s an ideal location for not only business travelers coming in and out the Cedar Park area, but also for the community itself,” Patel said.

Brewer said the hotel facilities offer economic benefit for surrounding businesses as well and provide more space for local businesses that prefer to hold off-site meetings.

“The more companies we have moving into town, the bigger the hospital gets, the more people we will have coming in and spending nights here in the community,” he said. “It’s nice to have those nicer products for our corporate executives that are going to be coming into the community.”