Gulch, Mt. Juliet getting upscale extended stay hotels

• Rajesh Aggarwal owns Gulch-area McGavock St. site, while the family of Clarksville hotelier Kunal Shah will own the Mt. Juliet Staybridge Suites hotel.
• "Over the last three years, Nashville's RevPAR growth has outperformed the nation, which has put the city squarely in the crosshair of most developers in the U.S.," said Jan D. Freitag of industry tracker STR.

The 120-room Staybridge Suites on the drawing board for land behind Adele's restaurant in the Gulch is one of two Nashville area hotels planned under the local debut of that upscale extended stay brand.

Construction is expected to start in spring 2017 on Staybridge Suites Nashville at 1212 McGavock St. with opening targeted for a year later. That property is owned by Rajesh Aggarwal, whose local holdings have included a pair of downtown area hotels and the inner core of Global Mall at the Crossings in Antioch.

Mt. Juliet's planning commission in December approved site plans for a Staybridge Suites off Belinda Parkway under that InterContinental Hotel Group brand. Construction should start this spring on that four-story, 100-room hotel, which will be owned by the family of Clarksville hotelier Kunal Shah.

"The city is very much growing well, so we want to cater to that," said Shah, adding that his hotel will be the first upscale extended stay hotel in Mt. Juliet.

The pair of planned Staybridge Suites openings reflect strong performance of the Nashville area's lodging market.

"Over the last three years, Nashville's RevPAR growth has outperformed the nation, which has put the city squarely in the crosshair of most developers in the U.S.," said Jan D. Freitag, senior vice president for lodging insights with Hendersonville-based industry tracker STR. "As occupancy and room rates continue to increase, I would expect continued active development for this city to continue."

By RevPAR, Freitag was referring to revenue per available room, which is a key measure of hotel performance.

Among the 25 largest U.S. lodging markets, Nashville last year finished behind only Phoenix and Tampa in growth in revenue per available room. STR's tracking shows an 11 percent RevPAR growth here to $93.11 versus a just over 6 percent average growth nationwide.

Meanwhile, Nashville's average daily room rate increased 8.7 percent to $126.67 at year's end. That was below the $147.30 average at year's end for the nation's 25 largest lodging markets and just above the $120 overall U.S. average.

The average occupancy rate for Nashville hotel rooms was 73.5 percent at year's end, up 2.2 percent from 2014. That was in line with the average 73.6 percent occupancy rate for the nation's top 25 lodging markets, although the overall U.S. average was 65.6 percent.

There are 219 Staybridge Suites across the Americas, Europe and the Middle East with more than 100 more in the pipeline, including eight outside of the Americas.

There are five Tennessee locations of the all-suite hotel brand, which targets extended stay guests. They are the Staybridge Suites Chattanooga Downtown-Convention Center, Staybridge Suites Chattanooga-Hamilton Place, Staybridge Suites Knoxville Oak Ridge, Staybridge Suites Knoxville-West and the Staybridge Suites Memphis-Poplar Ave East hotel.

In addition to Staybridge Suites, InterContinental Hotel Group's portfolio of hotel brands includes InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts and Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts. Others are Hotel Indigo, EVEN Hotels, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express and Candlewood Suites.

Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.