Developer to build hotel in Santaquin

SANTAQUIN — The Santaquin City Council's efforts the past three years to build the city's tax base are starting to produce results.

The announcement of a 100-room hotel near the Santaquin Main Street/I-15 interchange came Tuesday, and a new grocery store — the city's first — may be announced in the spring.

The hotel, possibly a Choice Hotel, likely will break ground in the spring "after the snow melts," said developer Dave Earnshaw. The structure is key to developing the east side of the I-15/Main Street interchange behind the new Maverik store that opened in July. Construction will take about a year, Earnshaw said.

Development plans also include four office buildings and a couple of restaurants, one possibly of international stature. The development could create as many as 60 jobs, he said.

The project is expected to boost the small southern Utah County city's tax revenues and give it much-needed hotel taxes, officials said.

"We've been working with (Mayor James DeGranffenreid) for about a year," Earnshaw said. "I had to make sure all my ducks were in a row before coming down here."

Although the city has been working on getting a hotel for the past 18 months, Tuesday's announcement came with urgency because major development is also planned in the Goshen Valley west of Santaquin near Elberta.

County officials are planning the entire 60,000 acres between Goshen and Elberta, including roads, industrial, commercial and residential growth, accessed now by U.S. 6 and state Route 68.

"We have to keep ahead of it," DeGraffenreid said. "There's only two ways around Utah Lake — through Lehi and through Santaquin. (The hotel and grocery store) will make a nice gateway into our community."

Development plans west of Santaquin have officials anxious.

"We've got to get the road corridors bought to make it work," DeGraffenreid said.

The Main Street interchange is the next-to-last one in Utah County going south on I-15. The last one is also in Santaquin, and the City Council has been working with the Boyer Co. for at least three years to get the commercial portion of it developed, with emphasis on a grocery store.

The city has also been working on a trail system that will run from Main to the foothills behind the planned hotel, city planner Dennis Marker said. The hills are popular among the locals for hiking and horseback riding.

e-mail: rodger@desnews.com