Banker plans Bolivar hotel

A Bolivar banker and developer is planning a Best Western hotel in the city 30 miles northwest of Springfield.

Thane Kifer, CEO and chairman of Farmers State Bank and a Bolivar alderman, is developing a 61-room Best Western Plus Vineyard Hotel and Suites near Southwest Baptist University at the northeast intersection of Boston Street Avenue and San Martin Street. He hired Springfield-based O’Reilly Hospitality Management LLC to manage it, according to an O’Reilly Hospitality news release.

The hotel will be located in Kifer’s The Vineyard development, a mixed-use area with an Aldi store.

The Bolivar Board of Aldermen — with Kifer abstaining — on May 1 approved a sales tax recapture agreement between the city and Kifer’s Pinecone Holdings LLC, the Bolivar Herald-Free Press reports. The approval means city sales taxes generated by the hotel would go toward public infrastructure developments in The Vineyard, according to the release.

“The Best Western Plus is a major addition to The Vineyard, but our plans for the broader development don’t stop with the hotel,” Kifer said in the release. “With the recapture, we will be able to reinvest the tax revenue from the hotel into bringing more undeveloped land online and ready for even more businesses to come to Bolivar.”

In its first 15 years, the hotel is expected to create an economic impact for Bolivar of $30 million, officials say.

Kifer is seeking to break ground as soon as June to open the hotel in early 2018, according to the release.

In Springfield, Kifer two years ago bought the former Remington’s music venue downtown. Plans for the aging property have yet to materialize.