Candlewood Plainfield Article 2007

TERRE HAUTE — Work could begin as early as next week on the new Candlewood Suites extended-stay hotel in downtown Terre Haute.

Dora Brothers Hospitality Corp. is expected to close the financing arrangements for the new hotel next Thursday, said Tim Dora, a co-owner of Dora Brothers Hospitality.

Once the financing is settled, construction will begin “as quickly as possible,” Dora said. “As of Thursday, the meter is running,” he said.

Construction of phase one of the Candlewood Suites should take about seven months to complete, Dora said. That initial construction phase will include 81 extended-stay suites in the gutted former Tribune Building, the former home of the Tribune-Star, between Seventh and Eighth streets on the south side of Wabash Avenue.

Once that phase is completed, four or five months will be needed to complete the second phase of the project, which will include a new building for the Terre Haute Children’s Museum and, above the museum, 16 to 18 more Candlewood Suites units, Dora said.

Dora Brothers and museum officials are expected to close on the sale of the land for the new Children’s Museum on Nov. 16, Dora said.

The Children’s Museum will pay Dora Brothers $400,000 for the land where the museum will stand at the corner of Eighth Street and Wabash Avenue, according to a Children’s Museum media statement issued late last year.

The museum will grant a vertical easement to Candlewood Suites for use of the suites that will be located above the museum, the media statement said.

Dora Brothers Hospitality also is the company that built the recently completed Hilton Garden Inn-Terre Haute House hotel at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue, across the street from the new Candlewood Suites project.

The Children’s Museum has been working to raise $4.8 million for the new 35,000-square-foot museum building. Nearly all the money necessary to build the new museum has been raised, a museum official said.

“To build everything, we’re just about there,” said Steve Schrohe, marketing coordinator for the museum’s board of directors. “We’re in pretty good shape.”

The museum’s fundraising efforts are only about $1.3 million shy of the $4.8 million target, Schrohe said. Part of the money raised, $1 million, will be placed in an endowment for the museum’s operating expenses, he said.

“I really think it will be a great attraction for downtown,” Dora said of the new Children’s Museum.

Of the $4.8 million raised by the museum, $1 million is set to come from the City of Terre Haute as a matching grant, according to the museum’s Web site. That grant will be funded through the city’s Economic Development Income Tax, the Web site said.