Great Bend Post
The City of Great Bend, along with Great Bend Economic Development, is moving forward with bringing a new hotel with restaurant options to town.
The deteriorating hotel on 10th Street, next to the Events Center, was torn down last winter. The former Highland Hotel was closed for more than six years before Economic Development purchased the vacant hotel in August 2022.
Through a number of incentives, which will go before the Great Bend City Council Monday for approval, a developer agrees to build an approximately 80-room hotel with costs of $14 million. The plan is to bring in a hotel with a nationally recognized brand, specifically Hampton Inn or a brand of comparable quality. The scope of the project will also include one or more restaurants or retail facilities with costs of $5 million.
The developer, Great Bend Lodging LLC, requests a Community Improvement District (CID) for 22 years, which imposes a two-percent add-on CID sales tax to reimburse the developer for project costs. The agreement also calls for a Property Tax TIF for 20 years. The TIF agreement states 100% of the property tax increment generated will be used to reimburse the developer for project costs. An IRB is requested to enable a sales tax exemption on construction materials. Finally, the developer asks for a $500,000 grant from the City of Great Bend and Economic Development to be utilized for costs incurred after the commencement of the project. The grant would come from the remaining monies from the Loft Grant program.
The council will discuss the agenda item at the meeting on Monday, Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.