At your service: an update on new hotels, renovations and amenities.

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CENTRAL INDIANA

The Hyatt Regency Indianapolis put the most into renovations in the downtown Indianapolis area this year, $13 million, and it shows. "It's a redesign, a whole new hotel after 30 years," says Brian Comes, general manager. The project, including a new entrance, lobby, renovated and expanded meeting space, and a new restaurant and bar, was completed last month. The hotel lobby features pods where staff can come out and greet guests, rather than stay behind a reception desk. It also offers four new kiosks for self check-in, which Comes says is very popular with frequent travelers.

On the lobby level is the new One South restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It serves American cuisine with an Italian flair, featuring a made-to-order pasta station. While the former Porch Restaurant on the third floor became part of the 8,000-square-foot Cosmopolitan Ballroom, diners can still head to the very top of the building to eat in the Eagle's Nest. The revolving restaurant, offering Indianapolis' most complete view, is now open only for dinner again. The hotel's sleek new Level One lounge on the lobby level serves drinks and better-than-your-average bar appetizers, from 3:00 p.m. to midnight. Comes says a redo of the health club with its windows looking out at the Statehouse is next on the agenda, then the hotel will begin again on the guest rooms, last updated five years ago, sometime after the model rooms are designed in 2008.

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The Westin, Indianapolis, begins this month on a $6.5 million renovation of the hotel's meeting space, including new sound systems in both ballrooms, all new lighting and a new HVAC system. The style and colors will offer a more contemporary look. Work will begin in the second-floor meeting space area, including the Grand Ballroom. When that's complete in February, renovation of the first-floor space, including the Capitol Ballroom, will begin. Renovation will be complete by March 31. A separate project, priced at $650,000, and expected to be completed at the same time, is an upgrade and expansion of the its health club.

Indianapolis Marriott Downtown, the city's largest hotel, also began a renovation last month and will complete work in mid-February. Renovation will include the lobby, all guest rooms, suites, banquet space, and public space, costing about $9.5 million. Seven hospitality suites will be converted into 14 double bed rooms, bumping up its total number of rooms to 622. The entire 40,000 square feet of banquet space will be refreshed with new carpet, wall covering, furniture, lamps and new banquet chairs.

Details released earlier this year on the planned $325 million JW Marriott complex in Indianapolis put the 29-story JW Marriott tower at 1,000 rooms and 110,000 square feet of meeting space, 250 rooms in the Courtyard by Marriott, 168 rooms in the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, and 150 rooms in the SpringHill Suites by Marriott, for a total of 1,568 rooms. Whiteco Industries, White Lodging Services Corp. and REI Real Estate Services are partnering for the project, selected to meet the city's need for a new 1,000-room convention hotel and intended to come online in spring 2010. No final word on a start date, which was to have been late this fall.

The Fishers area continues to expand its hotel choices. SpringHill Suites by Marriott Indianapolis/Fishers opened in May at 96th Street and Interstate 69. The rooms in the four-story, 130-suite hotel are reported to be 25 percent larger than comparable hotels. Hotel Indigo, the boutique brand in the InterContinental family since 2004, will have its first Indiana location when the Fishers hotel welcomes guests in February. It will have 115 rooms, 16 suites, an indoor pool and fitness center, 24-hour business center, cafe for fast casual dining and a bar. Its hip new look is achieved in part from its large bright-colored wall graphics taken from nature, and liberal use of its trademark color: indigo blue. That style and using haiku to transmit its communications looks to be designed to appeal to the busy young business traveler who wants to wind down well after a hard day. The state's second Hotel Indigo, with 85 rooms and suites, is slated to open in downtown Columbus in March.

Other hotel developments in the Indianapolis area include the rebranding of the Holiday Inn Select at the Indianapolis International Airport and construction of several new hotels in the area for 2008.

Indianapolis-based General Hotels Corporation is converting the 272-room airport hotel to a Crowne Plaza Hotel and making $6 million in renovations to the facility. As the state's second Crowne Plaza location, the hotel will have an improved exterior and feature an indoor pool, fitness center, meeting rooms and the award-winning Chanteclair Restaurant, which is popular for its French cuisine.

"The addition of the Crowne Plaza brand to the Indianapolis International Airport area is significant for both guests and meeting attendees," says president and CEO Jim Dora Jr. The company also plans to build a 150-room Embassy Suites Hotel near the airport along Six Points Road and south of Interstate 70.

Schahet Hotels is also building two new hotels in the area. Greg Schahet, chief operating officer, says a 126-room Hilton Garden Inn and a 119-room Hampton Inn & Suites are under construction and should be completed by the end of 2008.

The hotels will include business amenities, such as high-speed Internet, guest laundry and flat-screen televisions. The Hilton Garden Inn will also have a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and can provide banquet space for up to 200 people. "We're hoping to get nice demand, not only from the airport, but also from all the new development in the area," Schahet says.

In Greenwood, Valparaiso-based Focus Hospitality is developing another of its prototype Splash Universe indoor water parks and a 150- to 200-room hotel next to Nebraska-based Cabela's planned 125,000-square-foot store off Interstate 65. Cabela's is a leading specialty retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor merchandise. It is the third time the two companies have teamed up in adjacent projects to become a destination. Construction on the hotel and water park, in the ballpark of $30 million, should begin in early spring, says Art Smith, vice president of construction development, and be completed in the spring of 2009.

In Terre Haute a 109-room Hilton Garden Inn opened this year in the historic downtown adjacent to Indiana State University, and 92-suite SpringHill Suites by Marriott opened up nearby at U.S. 41 and I-70.

In Muncie, the 76-room Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, just a mile from Ball State University, completed a renovation this year. Two new hotels will come on line this year on the city's northeast side, Comfort Inn and Hampton Inn.

NORTHERN INDIANA 

The $14 million renovation of Merrillville-based White Lodgings flagship property that began in February was completed in November. All 343 guestrooms and suites at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza in Merrillville have been transformed with Sleep Number beds, new furniture and fixtures, refrigerators, flat-screen televisions and upgraded bathrooms with granite countertops. The atrium area was transformed as well, remaking the Garden Restaurant into the Star Cafe, reflecting the heritage of the Star Theatre next door. It was out with the tropical flavor in the lobby and in with Indiana's landscape colors. Around the pool in the atrium are semi-private cabanas with TVs, a sofa and wireless Internet access, and guests can also gather in the new Atrium Bar & Lounge.

Candlewood Suites and Comfort Suites are in the works on the I-65/U.S. 30 corridor in Merrillville, which will both come on line in 2008.

Another Splash Universe indoor water park with a 150- to 200-room hotel is scheduled for construction next to the new Cabela's in Hammond, which opened its 185,000-square-foot building in October on the site of the Woodmar Country Club. Splash Universe will start construction in 2008 to be completed in 2009.

In Hobart, a 123-room Hilton Garden Inn opened earlier this year; in Valparaiso, an 85-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites opened in November.

When its $130 million expansion is complete in late 2008, Blue Chip Casino Hotel in Michigan City will offer more hotel rooms than any other facility in Northwest Indiana. Its new 22-story tower will have 302 rooms, including 60 suites. Combined with its existing eight-story hotel, it will offer 486 rooms. The new hotel features a 10,000-square-foot spa with nine treatment rooms, entertainment and dining facilities and a 15,000-square-foot convention center, which will be the largest in LaPorte County

Splash Universe opened its first Indiana water park and hotel this year in Shipshewana, near the Flea Market, a long-established midweek tourist attraction. The 151-room hotel features suites, many with a king-sized bed in a private room, and two bunk beds in another. A common living area with sofa bed and a kitchen connect them. Expect to pay about $325 a night on a weekend, which includes four passes to the water park and all-you-can-eat country breakfast.

Hilton Garden Inns opened in Elkhart and in South Bend on the campus of Saint Mary College adjacent to the University of Notre Dame this year. A 106-suite Residence Inn by Marriott also opened in August near Notre Dame.

In Warsaw, a new 82-room Hampton Inn was opened by Valparaiso-based Good Hospitality. The hotel is located just south of U.S. 30, near the headquarters of several leading orthopedic companies including DePuy, Zimmer and Biomet. The hotel includes an indoor pool and a business meeting room and provides Internet access and a complimentary breakfast.

Many new hotels and renovations have been in the works in Fort Wayne. An 83-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is under construction on the north side, with a fall 2008 target. AmeriSuites, northeast of the city near Interstate 69, was redone and rebranded as a Hyatt Place mid-year. A full-service Holiday Inn with 150 rooms is being built adjacent to the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne campus, to open in the summer of 2008. Staybridge Inn & Suites, with 84 rooms at I-69 Exit 102, will open in the spring. It's unique for its "green" construction methods. Homewood Suites, at the same exit and opening about the same time, will have 80 suites. The Fort Wayne Marriott recently completed a major renovation, including all of its 222 guestrooms and its public places.

Ground was broken late last month for Harrison Square in downtown Fort Wayne. The project includes 30,000 square feet of street-level retail space, 60 residential condominiums, a 250-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel connected to the Grand Wayne Convention Center, a multiuse ballpark and 900-space parking garage.

SOUTHERN INDIANA

Bloomington welcomed the opening of a Radisson in October. A quarter mile from Indiana University, the 120-room hotel has all the latest in comfort and technology, including Sleep Number beds, iPod docking stations, wireless high-speed Internet and 32-inch flatscreen televisions. Classic Italian food is offered in Sarafina's restaurant. The hotel has 2,700 square feet of function space that will accommodate up to 200 guests. On the same street, Kinser Pike, but further out is the 66-room pet friendly Comfort Inn, also opened in October.

If you know Evansville, you know its largest hotel, the Executive Inn, and its top-to-bottom redo was complete this year, including its 470 guest rooms and its lobby, featuring the Lobby Bar gathering place, and the adjacent Time Out Lounge. The hotel has 35,000 square feet of meeting space, and is connected to The Centre where Broadway shows and other entertainment are available.

In Orange County, the big news this year was the renovation and reopening of the 246-room luxurious hotel at West Baden. But on a hill just across from French Lick Springs Hotel, a different kind of place is being developed--the $25 million Valley of the Springs Resort is now under construction and expected to be completed in October 2008. It will feature 154 rooms--still being designed and themed, says Misty Weisensteiner, director of operations, a 30,000-square-foot water park with retractable roof, and a 5,000-square-foot arcade.

It's all part of building the entire destination around the French Lick Casino Resort, which has the comer on the adult market, says Rob Denbo, executive director, Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau. It's targeting a different niche for the younger crowd and families, which already has headway with Paoli Peaks and Patoka Lake. With this new hotel, and others m the talking stages, Denbo expects more than 300 new rooms in the area by 2009.

In southeast Indiana, work continues on converting the Jeffersonville Ramada into the 175-room Sheraton Riverside Louisville North to open in March. "It's going to be an upscale boutique hotel," says Jim Keith, executive director of the Clark-Floyd Convention and Tourism Bureau. "Everything you see is new." It will also feature a new location of Bristol Bar & Grill, a Louisville institution for 30 years--now with a view of its hometown. "The whole riverfront is being developed," says Keith, with development occurring mainly at Exits 4 and 5 on 1-65. "We appreciate Louisville building a nice view for us."

In Clarksville, a 121-room four-story extended-stay Value Place is ready to open on U.S. 31 at Exit 4 off I-65. In New Albany, redevelopment is focused on Scribner Place downtown. Months of discussions have taken place around a consultant's ideas for a $6 million city-financed parking garage, on top of which a developer would build a 100-room hotel with river views and convention space.