2016 ‘The Year of Construction’ for Waterwalk Hotel Apartments
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David Redfern characterizes 2016 as a “year of construction” for Wichita-based WaterWalk Hotel Apartments.
Redfern, the organization’s president, tells me construction has started or will start soon on a mix of franchised and corporate-owned facilities across the country. Thirty-five facilities are in various stages of development, with many of those opening this year, Redfern says.
Most will be franchises of the WaterWalk Hotel Apartments brand.
The organization announced last week plans to open a facility in Denver. Construction is expected to start in February. The 138-unit property, which will be the second corporate-owned WaterWalk Hotel Apartments, will be near Denver’s Centennial Airport.
That project will take about a year to complete. Redfern says three other corporate-owned facilities are planned for 2016.
He says the goal is to have 100 WaterWalk Hotel Apartments in operation across the country within five years, with about 80 percent of those being franchised facilities.
“We look for the corporate demand, either through corporate headquarters or Class A office,” Redfern says of the company’s expansion philosophy.
The Colorado location, for example, will be part of the Denver Technological Center development that includes 30 million square feet of Class A office space in the southeast portion of that city’s metro area.
The WaterWalk Hotel Apartments concept combines apartment living and an extended-stay hotel into one facility.
Redfern says areas of high relocation demand, training and technical projects — all which typically require longer stays — are sought as potential locations for WaterWalk Hotel Apartments locations.
Opening in Denver is part of an aggressive expansion plan for Jack DeBoer-founded WaterWalk Hotel Apartments.
A 132-unit complex at 411 W. Maple is the model by which the WaterWalk Hotel Apartments brand is expanding nationwide, a plan DeBoer announced in January 2015.
“This is the year of construction,” Redfern says.
Besides WaterWalk Hotel Apartments, DeBoer also founded Residence Inn, Summerfield Suites, Candlewood Suites and Value Place, which was renamed WoodSpring Suites last spring.
The Wichita Business Journal named DeBoer a 2015 Newsmaker for the launch of the WaterWalk Hotel Apartments concept.
Original Article
Josh Heck, Reporter Wichita Business Journal