Miami hotel prepares to open

Portell & Ratzlaff LLC spent $5.5 million developing the 75-room hotel, said co-owner Roger Ratzlaff. The hotel sits on part of 3.8 acres that the Overland Park, Kan.-based company purchased behind Ken’s Farm and Home, 2220 E. Steve Owens Blvd.

Amenities at the new Holiday Inn Express & Suites include a fitness center, indoor pool and hot tub, convenience store, business center, wireless Internet and family bedroom suites. Ratzlaff said the hotel will serve a hot breakfast with “real” cutlery. There are also a few small meeting rooms.

The hotel includes a children’s suite with bunk beds and a bed for parents that will be available for $165 a night and two suites with hot tubs that will also cost $165 a night. The rate for a typical room will be $89 to $99 a night.

BBI Construction Co. and Dick Meyers served as the general contractor for construction. Will Rogers, of Denver, Colo., was the architect and co-owner Doug Portell’s wife, Cindy, decorated the property.

Ratzlaff said the hotel will primarily serve business travelers staying one night. He said the company is targeting people who previously stayed the night in Joplin or Tulsa after conducting business in Miami. Other stays, he said, will come from casino patrons, Route 66 tour groups, and visitors to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College.

Portell & Ratzlaff opened the 70-room Comfort Inn & Suites in Pittsburg, Kan., in 1999. The company also owns the Country Inn & Suites in Nevada and recently sold the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Maryville.

Ratzlaff, a Springfield native, is the assistant manager and broker for an A.G. Edwards office in Overland Park. He said he enjoys developing, but doesn’t plan to leave his career. He said he is interested in continuing to develop in the tri-state area.

The hotel is yards from Miami’s busiest Interstate 44 exit. An estimated 21,000 vehicles pass Miami each day and Ratzlaff said an estimated 1.5 million vehicles exit there each year. He said he anticipates additional retail and restaurant development near the hotel. Portell & Ratzlaff owns enough adjacent land to build another hotel, he said.

“It is just like when we came to Pittsburg,” Ratzlaff said. “Once you get the quality (hotel) in, then the other services will follow.”

The hotel is the first of several new accommodations planned for Miami. Construction recently began on the Hampton Inn located at the intersection of Steve Owens Blvd. and Deacon Turner. The Peoria Tribe has said it plans to build a hotel adjacent to Buffalo Run Casino.

Brian Barger, economic development director for the city of Miami, said that the amount the city collects in hotel and motel tax has increased 50 percent since 2004. He said he anticipates the new hotels will increase that amount another 15-to-20 percent. The additional revenue will give the Miami Convention & Visitors’ Bureau more funds to market the city, Barger said.

As for Portell & Ratzlaff, the latter said the company will remodel its Comfort Inn & Suites in Pittsburg in 2008. He said he didn’t have an estimate on how much the company will spend on that project.

Ratzlaff also said the company plans to announce another tri-state area project in about two months. He declined to give additional details including which city the company is considering.

“We like the small town atmosphere,” Portell said. “People are friendlier and easier to work with.”