On one side, stood Big Bend Development and an ownership group of local residents headed up by developer Jay Henrichs. On the other, stood developer Ron Arthur and Runzheimer International president Rex Runzheimer.
The Baymont, at 720 Fox Lane, becomes the first hotel in a town both developers knew could only support one.
Henrichs had been planning a hotel for their site for more than a decade before proposing the idea of a Baymont to the Village of Waterford. Three feasibility studies were commissioned, and the third, completed in the spring of 2001, suggested the village had grown enough to support a hotel.
The third study would appear to be right on, as Waterford is riding a growth boom. Equalized property value — with no increase in assessed values — has increased 13% this year, according to village administrator Diane Schleicher.
"That 13% does not include the increased value of the Baymont, which is just finished," Schleicher said.
Meanwhile, the village had implemented a tax incremental finance (TIF) district across Highway 36 from Henrich’s site to accommodate the move of Runzheimer International, a relocation and travel consultancy firm, from the nearby City of Burlington, and to stimulate additional outlot development.
One of the uses Runzheimer and Arthur proposed for the TIF was a 70-room Wellesley Inn and Suites. The Wellesley would be positioned to better take advantage of business travel generated by Runzheimer and other businesses located in Waterford Centre.
The two developers announced their hotel plans within days of each other, Henrichs said.
According to Schleicher, the village resisted pressures to zone one or the other hotel out of existence.
"People come to me all the time and say, ‘We don’t need another antique store or beauty parlor downtown,’" Schleicher said. "But I tell them, ‘No. The more you have, the better. If you can get enough critical mass in any one thing, you can make yourself a destination.’ But even if that were not the case, it is still not the village’s duty to decide what the market is."
Eventually, it was not only the market, but initiative and weather that determined which hotel appeared first.
Big Bend-based Peter J. Schwabe Inc., began construction of the Baymont in January of 2002. Mild weather allowed for concrete pours and other work in what normally would have been the dead of winter. Within a month and a half, the elevator towers for the three-story building had been constructed, all the underfloor work had been completed and warm temperatures were allowing contractors to pour concrete.
Schleicher said Arthur’s Waterford Centre development group has yet come back to the planning commission with a revised timeline for building the Wellesley Inn & Suites. Arthur did not return calls regarding the status of the project.
Oct. 11, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
