Boutique hotel planned for south Springfield

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A St. Robert-based hotel company is planning to bring a boutique hotel to south Springfield.

Siraff Inc. this summer purchased a 1.6-acre lot at 1301 E. Lark St., next to Zimmerman Properties LLC’s headquarters and near a Price Cutter grocery store. Bruce Farris, president of Siraff Inc., declined to disclose purchase details.

Farris said the boutique hotel concept, which is planned to be called The Hotel Urbane, would feature about 80 suites designed to attract travelers with higher price points. He declined to disclose pricing projections for the hotel.

“We’re attempting to go against the grain,” Farris said. “We want our rooms to be spacious and luxurious.”

Farris pointed to downtown’s Hotel Vandivort as his inspiration, noting south Springfield doesn’t have a similar boutique hotel.

“The hotel should exude sophistication and a little bit of upscale style,” Farris said. “I think one of the successes of the Vandivort is that it creates this personality when you go into it. It's like an experience.”

Farris said he expects to break ground in 2020 and open the hotel in 2021. Local architecture firm Arkifex Studios LLC was hired for the design.

Farris has his hand in a few hotels around the St. Robert area. Siraff Inc. owns a Holiday Inn Express that opened in 2010, and Farris is part-owner of Farris Hospitality, which operates an extended stay hotel called Studio Z. He’s also part owner of Z-Loft Hotels LLC, which owns an extended stay hotel in the area.

The lot on East Lark Street is diagonal to another developing hotel off National Avenue. A Tulsa, Oklahoma, hotel developer is building a $17.2 million Homewood Suites by Hilton just across Lark Street. It is expected to be complete in November 2020.

Farris said he’s not worried about the nearby development.

“We’re going after two different types of clientele, as far as I'm concerned,” he said.