Pleasant Grove heralds plan for new hotel

PLEASANT GROVE — Pleasant Grove's skyline will forever be changed in less than a year if a new proposal to build a 12-story hotel and conference center in the city is realized.

Pleasant Grove officials announced Friday that Embassy Suites and Hotels hopes to break ground soon on the travel-lodge project, which would become the tallest building in the Utah County city if the plans are accepted.

The company wants to build on land just south of I-15 exit 275 — the same part of town where Westwood Development Group plans to build Sundance Commons, a 105-acre, $200 million outdoor retail and business center.

Pleasant Grove leaders are ecstatic about the proposed hotel and conference center and hope it will be the start of big things.

"If you were to look from space at I-15, there really is only one prime interchange location left, and that is exit 275," said Pleasant Grove City Councilman Bruce Call.

"Pleasant Grove is positioned perfectly to take advantage of conventions for all the high-tech businesses in Utah County," he said. "I anticipate that this will be the first of what will really prove to be a sprawling (Deseret Commons) lifestyle center there at the interchange."

The five-star hotel and conference center would have meeting facilities with 30-foot ceilings and would be equipped with the latest technology, according to John Q Hammons Hotels and Resorts, which owns Embassy Suites and Hotels.

Scott Tarwater, spokesman for John Q. Hammons Hotels and Resorts, said he believes the hotel's modern approach would draw business from many entities around the county.

"The whole Utah Valley area we feel is underserved in hotel meeting facilities," he said. "If you are a meeting planner and you're looking for a state-of-the-art meeting facility to put on a very professionally run, high-tech meeting, then you probably would not go to many of the facilities that currently exist in Salt Lake or Provo. If you're looking for the latest and greatest, to drive 25 minutes is nothing."

John Q. Hammons, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of John Q. Hammons Hotels and Resorts, will be at the unveiling of artist renderings of the convention center and the adjacent business and residential development Wednesday.

"John Q. Hammons let us know that he might be a year or two ahead of the curve, but he wanted to be the very first one to notice the perfect location of Pleasant Grove," Call said. "We're right in the heart of Utah Valley. We are excited to have this perfect location to be graced by one of the finest hotel chains in the world."

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