Local residents may have noticed a change occuring on the northeast corner of Manhattan and Bluemont Avenues. Over the past few weeks, several houses and an apartment complex have been cleared out to make way for the newest addition to the Manhattan hotel scene, the Bluemont Hotel.
The idea for a hotel in that area has been bounced around for the last year and a half. Recently, though, it landed in the hands of Andrew Suber, co-owner and manager of Blue Mountain Capital, who got the ball rolling.
“The hotel has been on our radar for a long time,” Suber said. “So we just had to wait out the other companies so we could secure the property.”
The hotel is located directly across from both the K-State campus and Aggieville, a location that will be convenient for many visitors and events. City Commissioner Usha Reddi was not on the commission when the hotel was introduced, but she said she feels that the Bluemont Hotel, along with other newly built hotels in Manhattan, fill a need.
“From all indicators, Manhattan’s need for hotel space is rising,” Reddi said. “We have lots of visitors here who stay for the weekend, and it’s good to have another hotel close to campus. I’m not sure what the long term impact is for all the hotels being built, but I assume these businesses have done their research and feel this is the right move for them. Of course, we’ll know more in a couple of years.”
While the hotel will offer a place for campus vistors to stay, Tim Fitzgerald, editor and publisher of Powercat Illustrated and president of the Aggieville Business Association, said he also sees a lot of promise in the Bluemont Hotel for Aggieville.
“The Bluemont will be very good for Aggieville. I’m really excited,” Fitzgerald said. “They will have 100-plus parking spots dedicated to the hotel which means that’s 100-plus parking spots dedicated to people that come to Aggieville. If they’re staying in that hotel, they’re coming to Aggieville.”
The hotel, which will span two-thirds of the block, will house 110 rooms, a hotel coffee shop, a rooftop deck and conference area, a bar and several built-in retail establishments that have not been determined at this time.
The hotel is scheduled to open in the summer of 2014, just in time for the 2014-2015 K-State football season.
Editor’s Note: This article was completed as an assignment for a class in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
