SIERRA VISTA - Statewide and national lodging chains are taking notice of this mountain view town. The industry growth in Sierra Vista has witnessed two new hotels opening in the last few months, with another major sale now complete.

A popular host, the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center, was officially sold on June 6 by entrepreneurs from the Toumey Co. and purchased by investors from Delta Properties.

"We are going to take the hotel through a major renovation," said Scott Brundage, vice president of operations for the Chandler Hotel Group, the management company under the new ownership.

All bedrooms, public areas and meeting spaces will be refinished, representing a nearly $2 million investment.

"The quality and service levels are going to come up," said Joe Gallagher, general manager.

Although the building will be remodeled, hotel employment will not see any changes, and the original franchise name will be kept.

When the structure was built about 20 years ago, it was a Ramada courtyard prototype. The Toumeys purchased the building approximately five years later, and have run it ever since.

Brundage said the local economic growth prompted investors to take notice. "They saw the opportunity in Sierra Vista," he said.

Douglas to see new hotel

Last month, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Douglas for a Best Western Hotel on Seventh Street and Pan American Avenue.

The lot on Seventh Street had been set aside by city council for a hotel, but the deal for one could never come through - until now. The Douglas Hotel Development (DHD) has worked out all the details and expects to begin building very soon.

"I expect that within 10 to 12 months you'll be renting a room here," said Paco Patel, the manager for the DHD. "We've worked hard to be where we're at, and we hope that you'll like how it all turns out."

The hotel, which will be less than half a mile from the Douglas Port of Entry, could also mark the beginning of positive growth for that site.

The hotel will be three stories with about 50 rooms and a large conference room, Patel said.

Building a new hotel in Douglas has long been a dream and a hassle for the mayor and city council.

Too often the deals fell through for one reason or another.

The construction of the hotel will dovetail with the proposed Government Plaza for the Downtown area.

By the numbers

Last year hotels added more than $35 million to the Cochise County economy, with almost half of that total attributed to hotels in Sierra Vista. In the first quarter of 2007, Sierra Vista's accommodation sales were up 11.4 percent. The increase in the first quarter of 2007 follows a countywide trend.

In Cochise County outside of Sierra Vista, accommodation sales were up 21.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, nearly twice the rate of growth as that seen in Sierra Vista.

The result is that Sierra Vista's share of the countywide accommodation market dropped from 40.5 percent in the first quarter of 2006 to 38.3 percent in the first quarter of 2007. For all of 2006, Sierra Vista accounted for 42.6 percent of the countywide accommodation market.

There are numerous factors that contribute to accommodation sales, and these vary throughout the county. Bisbee and Tombstone, for example, rely heavily on tourism. But these areas are also impacted by construction.

For example, Bisbee saw its accommodation sales skyrocket during construction of that city's new wastewater treatment facility in 2005 and 2006. When construction was complete, sales dropped dramatically.

This is because many construction crews comprise workers from out of town, who stay in temporary lodging while working on these projects. Benson's accommodation sales have also been heavily influenced by construction.

Benson and Willcox rely heavily on I-10 traffic for accommodation receipts. Traffic on the interstate is impact by broader economic conditions at the national and state levels, including national productivity, imports, and gas prices, among others.

In late 2006, hotels and motels in Benson also benefited from a shortage of rooms in Sierra Vista, which pushed a lot of the business associated with Fort Huachuca toward Benson.

That will likely end this year with the opening of several new hotels in Sierra Vista.

Sierra Vista's accommodation market is a bit more complex than that of the smaller cities in the county, mainly due to the impact of Fort Huachuca.

The recent commercial construction in the city likely helped along accommodation sales, as well. And, of course, traditional tourism (e.g., bird watching, environmental tourism, etc.) plays a big role.

Factors that can affect local tourism include gas prices (higher prices tend to discourage domestic tourism), and the value of the dollar on the foreign exchange (a weak dollar tends to encourage tourism to the United States, while a strong dollar discourages tourism).

ROBERT CARREIRA, director of the Center for Economic Research at Cochise College, and Wick News Service reports contributed to this article.