LITTLE ROCK — The McKibbon Hotel Group Inc. plans to build its third hotel in downtown Little Rock, a spokesman for the Gainesville, Ga., company said Thursday.
The six-story Residence Inn by Marriott at the northeast corner of Third Street and River Market Avenue, formerly Commerce Street, McKibbon said.
The hotel is in the design stage, said Paula MacDonald, a spokesman for McKibbon. It is to open in the spring of next year, MacDonald said, although she was uncertain when construction on the 107-room hotel will begin.
There hasn’t been a building permit issued for the project, said a spokesman at the Little Rock Planning Department.
A Residence Inn is designed for longer stays and features suites with kitchens as well as separate living and sleeping areas.
McKibbon already owns and manages two hotels in the same vicinity — the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in the 14-story First Security Center on President Clinton Avenue in the River Market District and the eight-story Hampton Inn and Suites on River Market Avenue.
The Courtyard by Marriott has 120 rooms and the Hampton Inn has 119 rooms.
McKibbon has been pleased with the performance of its two Little Rock hotels, Mac-Donald said.
“We have had some very nice success with the properties there downtown,” Mac-Donald said. “We love urban projects and this would be another fantastic urban project for us.”
The cost of the project has not yet been determined, Mac-Donald said.
Downtown developer Jimmy Moses, called the project “a great endorsement of this neighborhood and its future.” Moses is a partner in Moses Tucker Real Estate, which helped develop the first two McKibbon hotels in Little Rock.
Moses Tucker will not be involved in developing the new hotel, Moses said.
The hotel will be near a Central Arkansas Transit Authority’s route for a downtown electric trolley. Construction of the hotel will necessitate temporary relocation of two trolley poles. When the hotel is completed, the transit authority will attach the trolley’s overhead wiring to the hotel wall, the authority said in a report for a meeting next week.
McKibbon proposed building a seven-story Aloft hotel at River Market Avenue and President Clinton Avenue in 2008, but that property never materialized.
At the time, there were complaints from some residents that the Aloft was taller than allowed in the River Market District.
McKibbon received variances to build the 14-story First Security Center in the downtown district.
Business, Pages 27 on 02/17/2012