Marble Falls becoming a hotel hot spot

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN) - Marble Falls residents will soon have more options when their in-laws drop by unexpectedly.

Two new hotels will open within the next year, adding more than 150 beds for visiting relatives, tourists and workers completing a handful of construction projects aimed at boosting the economic and travel appeal of the area.

A four-story Motel 6 on the north side of the city should open mid-September. Rick Patel, who owns a Best Western in neighboring Burnet, said the time is right for this development.

"Marble Falls is poised to become a major attraction in the Hill Country in the next few years," Patel explained. "I think people want to go there because it has something different to offer."

When asked about the recent occupancy of his Burnet establishment, he said the last few months have been very slow.

"It's mostly a Friday and Saturday night kind of thing."

Patel is banking on business beyond tourism. He said his new hotel will be affordable enough that construction workers from several nearby projects will be able to stay there conveniently and inexpensively.

One of those projects is a Comfort Suites hotel, which broke ground this month in the La Ventana development, just south of Marble Falls on US 281. Despite the slow economy, plans for the $6 million project are going forward. Crews said the hotel should be complete by the end of February 2010.

Christian Fletcher, executive director of the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber, said the city currently has five hotels, which often reach capacity on summer weekends.

“We just want to try to keep people here instead of having them move on down the road and stay in another community,” Fletcher said, “because there’s not a hotel room to be had in Marble Falls sometimes.”

Fletcher said the closest community in real competition with Marble Falls, which has 325 available rooms each night, is Fredericksburg with more than 1600 rooms. He added not only is the city losing tourists to other places with vacancy, it is also losing potential annual hotel occupancy tax revenue. Fredericksburg rakes in about $1.4 million a year, while Marble Falls has only $330,000.

A portion of that money goes to Fletcher’s group to promote what the city has to offer. More revenue might mean a greater allocation to attract more tourists and even hotels.

“For the foreseeable future,” he said, “we would like to have a new hotel property come online every year to 18 months or so.”

Paul Brady, owner of River City Grille along Lake Marble Falls, said he noticed more customers when a La Quinta Inn opened across the waterway recently.

“I think at some point,” Brady said, “we’ll reach having enough hotel rooms, but we’re a long way from there.”