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Heavy equipment has made steady progress behind the billboards near the Iowa Highway 86 junction in north Milford. The completed project will feature 36 guest rooms and four suites, according to Tim Stuart, an owner-developer behind the Boulders Inn project.
"We were scheduled sometime in that mid- to late-May time frame, but we're hopeful that we'll be open in early May, based on a nice weather pattern this fall and being able to get a lot of things done ahead of schedule" he said.
Boulders Inn and Suites is headquartered in Denison. Other inns are located in Lake View and Atlantic. Boulders Inn locations tend to have fewer rooms than larger hotel chains.
"We've scaled back the size, but we've definitely looked at upscale as far as quality in rooms, whether that be beds or the attractiveness of the property -- the 'wow' feeling when you walk into the lobby area," Stuart said. "It's not a standard hotel property."
The Rodeway Inn is the only other hotel complex in Milford. That business is in the rebuilding process following a substantial fire on Sept. 30.
"With Boulders Inn and Suites, we've got a unique property and project, we're fitting a niche market and, certainly, we're looking at a upscale type of scenario -- something that's going to be very comfortable and something that people are going to be happy with when they see it," Stuart said. "Our experience has been: Once we get someone to our property, it's not hard to get them back."
Stuart also credits a successful business model for interest in the Iowa Great Lakes Region.
"Things have gone well with the properties we've opened to date and it allows us, based on that, to have both investors that are interested as well as lenders who will look at a project like that," he said.
Boulders will have a staff of 8-10 employees in place to operate the hotel.