Hyatt enters Utah market

Hyatt enters Utah market

By Mike Gorrell, The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:03/06/2009 08:27:56 PM MST


Absent from Utah's hotel scene until now, the Hyatt brand is establishing a presence in three diverse areas of the Salt Lake Valley.

A Hyatt Summerfield Suites opened in November in Sandy, positioned so its 137 suites will appeal to destination visitors skiing in the Cottonwood canyons and business people with south valley clients.

Joining downtown's cluster of hotels this summer will be a 128-room Hyatt Place Hotel at 55 N. 400 West, the overnight lodging component of The Gateway development.

Another Hyatt Place is scheduled to open this fall at 52 N. Tommy Thompson Road (4700 West) in the growing group of hotels near Salt Lake City International Airport.

Why now, after not being Utah for so long?

"For lack of a better description, the stars just aligned right with the right developers," said Jim Chu, Hyatt senior vice president of franchise and owner relations. He and other Hyatt-affiliated hoteliers met this week at the Sandy Hyatt Summerfield.

"There's no particular reason the brand wasn't in Salt Lake before," he said. "It's not that we didn't want to be. We just didn't have the right opportunity for the right project at the right time."

But now, hard as the economic times might be, turns out to be that right time.

Kevin Ludlow, the Hyatt franchisee whose company owns the 30-employee Sandy hotel, is not surprised.

"Small business can still succeed in a down economy," said Ludlow, owner of Sequoia Development, which pays Hyatt a royalty to use its name. "It's still the engine that makes things work. The hospitality business has taken a hit, but we've got to believe small business is important and can make it in tough times."

Chu said Hyatt believes it has solid partners in the Salt Lake Valley projects.

Sequoia Development has worked on commercial real estate, resort condominiums at Deer Valley and gated community projects for two decades. The Gateway Hyatt is being built by The Boyer Co. and the Gardner Co., while the airport Hyatt Place is part of the Commonwealth Hotels chain.

Commonwealth is part of Corporex Cos., LLC, a Kentucky real estate company with $1.1 billion in assets. Those include 23 hotels in 11 states and another 10 hotels in development, including a Springhill Suites by Marriott in South Jordan.

Chu said these partners "know the Salt Lake City market and the success it's had in years past … It has had consistent performance. It hasn't gone through the big explosion of growth in new hotels over the last five to seven years, so market demand has stayed ahead of the supply curve."

In addition, Utah's overall economy is more upbeat than most states. "Even in today's environment, it's a bit more stable than most other markets. There's been a bit of insulation from the general severity of the economy," he said.

One advantage of bearing the Hyatt name is inclusion in a reservations and promotional system for 370 hotels worldwide, Chu said. Four new hotels were added last month.

mikeg@sltrib.com