West Texas A&M University welcomes new on-campus Hampton Inn hotel
Ground breaking for new hotel on WT’s campus.
CANYON, Texas (KFDA) - Ground was broken on West Texas A&M campus today for a new four-story Hampton Inn that will feature about 90 rooms and suites, a small banquet and conference room, outdoor picnic area, a pool and bar.
The property is located next to the First United Bank Center and east of the Holiday Inn Express.
The project has been in the works for about two years and began after the Canyon EDC did a study that confirmed the need for more hotels in the Canyon area with the growing population and visitors.
“People come to Canyon and there’s not, there’s a few hotels here. But they’ll end up going to Amarillo, which is not too far away. So, the need is to be here, we want to keep those dollars here in Canyon,” said Randy Rikel, vice president of business and finance at West Texas A&M University.
The school partnered with the city of Canyon and a hotel group.
InVision Hotel Group is a family-owned company privately funding this new hotel and saw the university expand over the last 10 years, creating an opportunity to bring more hotels to the area.
“We really wanted to be close to the university, we’ve seen the university expand in the last 10 years and we really wanted to partner with them,” said Pri Bhakta, principal owner of InVision Hotel Group.
The group expects to start construction January 2021 and with hopes to open sometime in 2022.
The group is leasing the land from the Texas A&M University system and will pay an annual rental fee for the next 35 years.
“So, it’s going to help the university in getting some hospital occupancy taxes back to us; which will help in the long run. And that’s some benefit for everybody, because we’re bringing an outside revenue into the city of Canyon,” said Rikel.
The mayor of Canyon believes there is a capacity issue with the limited hotels in Canyon, especially when it comes to larger events.
“Really excited what that does for the city of Canyon, both for WT and our tourist industry which is very important to the city of Canyon,” said Gary Hinders, mayor for the city of Canyon.
This new hotel will help house student athletes who come into town, possibly bring student jobs and provide a close location for families visiting their students.
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