A new Marriott Townplace Suites hotel will be completed by the end of summer in the Northpark Business Center in Urbandale.

Located at 8800 Northpark Drive, the four-story hotel, which will contain nearly 65,000 square feet, will have 116 rooms geared toward the business traveler, said Schott Mohr, project engineer for Ball Construction Services LLC, the project’s general contractor.

“It is an extended-stay hotel,” Mohr said. “All the rooms will be studios with a kitchenette. There will also be executive suites, but each room is designed for the business person who will be in town for more than a night.”

The hotel will also include a conference room, indoor pool, whirlpool, 24-hour exercise room, Wi-Fi Internet access, valet services, laundry facilities, patio, complementary coffee and daily breakfast buffet. After construction is complete this summer, the hotel is expected to be open by the fall.

Mohr said the company managing the hotel, Orchestrate Management Associates, is also working with his company on another hotel project in Altoona. That hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, will be located near Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino on Adventureland Drive. It will have 80 rooms.

Holiday Inn and Suites

Another new hotel is under construction at the corner of 60th Street and Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines.

Ground was broken for the 137-room Holiday Inn and Suites late last year, said Carmen Darland, vice president of marketing for Heart of America Restaurants & Inns, a hospitality company that will manage the hotel. Construction should be completed by April of next year.

“This hotel will be on the cutting edge of technology and décor,” Darland said. “There will be lots of suite options.”

The biggest feature of the hotel, Darland said, is its 6,000 square feet of meeting space.

“It will be a very flexible space,” she said. “It can be broken up into several different rooms or used all together. We will be able to accommodate 250 for a sit-down banquet, and a lot more without tables.”

Darland said because Heart of America is also a restaurant company, it wants to ensure the food at the hotel is top notch.

“We want to bring in a restaurant that is similar to Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, which we also manage,” she said. “We aren’t just going to take care of people with our rooms and conference space; we are going to take care of them on the food side as well.”

Besides Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, Heart of America’s other Des Moines area operations include the Iowa Machine Shed, Comfort Suites and Sleep Inn at Living History Farms, Wildwood Lodge and Radisson Hotel Des Moines Airport.

Another hotel the company will manage, a Fairfield Inn near the airport, is expected to break ground in early spring and open around the same time as the West Des Moines hotel.