Originally greenlit in 2019, and planned to start construction in 2020, construction was delayed several years by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID hit the hospitality industry really hard,” said Joshua Patel, principal with Scarlet and Gray. “With our properties that we have in the Dayton area, partially due to our scale, we handled it pretty well ... But as far as getting lending and building a hotel during that time, we were all hands on deck just trying to keep our operating business alive.”
A formal groundbreaking at the Beavercreek mall site was held in late 2023, and Mason-based builder HiFive Development Services began ground work on the project in January 2024.
“There’s always challenges, but on the build side of things, we’ve been doing pretty well,” Patel said. “We’ve been in a good rhythm.”
The double-branded Marriott joins several restaurants and businesses on the south and southeast corner of the Mall, where more and more properties have been built outside the mall structure. The hotel is within walking distance to a host of restaurants, including BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, Fusian, and Toasted Brunch Bar and Café on the southeast side of the Mall. Round 1 Bowling and Arcade is also a mall tenant immediately north of the hotel site.
Experience-based retail has been a major focus for malls in the last 10 years, as consumers want places where they can eat, shop and play all in one place.
The proximity and walkability of the surrounding area to food and entertainment was a major factor in choosing where to build, Patel said.
“You not only have the food that’s all there, but entertainment and leisure,” he said. “It gives us a little bit of an advantage in that sense of … even if it’s a cold winter day that we get in Ohio, I can take a quick walk, I’m inside and have entertainment for the evening.”
Scarlet and Gray Hospitality also developed Home2 Centerville, located off of I-675 at the Cornerstone development, using the same concept.
Scarlet and Gray Hospitality is a family business, started by Patel’s father and uncle, and has been in business in the Dayton area for 25 years. The business operates four other hotels in the Miami Valley, and one in Cincinnati.
The dual-branded concept is a more recent trend in the hospitality industry, Patel said, serving two different target markets and being more efficient in its operations.
“So, instead of building two separate properties with two separate lobbies, two separate breakfasts, all that is a lot more cost,” he said. “A dual brand is meant to capture both (types of) guests, with the Fairfield being more of a transient guest, someone that might be there for one to two nights, and then a Towne Place guest being someone that is there for four to five nights.”
The number of rooms in the hotel is roughly evenly split between Fairfield Inn & Suites and TownePlace Suites, the Dayton Daily News previously reported.
Having essentially two hotels on one site is also useful for high-volume events, such as Winter Guard International that was held in the Miami Valley a few weeks ago, Patel said.
Post-COVID, consumers’ interest in travel has remained strong in the Dayton area, he added.
“2022 was one of the best years across our portfolio in terms of travel as a whole,” Patel said. “We see that people want to still even go on weekend vacations or the normal business travel, which is the bulk of our business.”
The 90,000-square-foot, 160-room hotel is located where the parking lot of the former Sears was at the Mall at Fairfield Commons. Sears closed in 2018. The hotel is expected to be complete by the end of this year.
Scarlet and Gray is already looking ahead to hiring staff for the new hotel. Interested people can contact Director of Operations Stuard Ward at sward@sghospitality.com.
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