Indigo Plainfield Article 2007

Another trendy and tech-oriented hotel is planned in Plainfield, where the hospitality industry is booming.

Dora Hospitality is planning an 85-room, four-story Hotel Indigo at the Ind. 267 interchange of I-70, just west of the entry to the new terminal under construction at Indianapolis International Airport.
Hotel Indigo, featuring bright and bold architecture and décor, is one of the newest brands in upscale hotels. It caters to travelers looking for fashionable amenities such as swimming pool, plasma TVs, fitness spa and wireless communications.

Tim Dora and other hotel industry insiders said the new billion-dollar airport terminal and Plainfield's ever-growing industrial, office and retail parks is luring the hotel business.

"Plainfield is not yet overbuilt with hotels," he said. "That neighborhood will be part of the hotel service for the airport."

"In fact, there will be some realignment of hotel services as the new terminal opens. We'll see a decline in the (hotel business) inside the I-465 loop and a shift to the new entrance road to the west" next to Plainfield, he said.

According to Plainfield Town Manager Richard Carlucci, the town has 877 hotel rooms with 793 of them at the I-70 interchange.

Several hundred more rooms in new hotels and/or expansions of existing facilities have been approved or proposed to the town's plan commission or council.

Dora Hospitality, owned by brothers Bob and Tim Dora, plans to expand the Holiday Inn Express with about 60 more rooms. The building also will receive an extensive renovation of the exterior.
It opened in 1995 with 76 rooms aimed at highway or local business travelers. "We intend to turn it more into an airport-style property," Tim Dora said.

The Fishers-based Dora group also opened a new Staybridge suites in January with 88 rooms. It is near the Holiday Inn on Cambridge Way on the northeast side of the I-70 and Ind. 267 interchange.

The town's Plan Commission also has approved the design of a 121-room Value Place hotel on Gateway Drive on the northwest side of the interchange.

Also, Cambria Suites, one of the newest hotel concepts for the hip, upscale and tech-oriented traveler, is proposed on the northwest corner of the Plainfield interchange.
Plainfield is seeing a wide mix of new hotel types and price points, from the budget-priced to family-size rooms, to extended-stay suites.

Dora Hospitality, a second-generation, family-owned hotel company with franchises of several major brands, has four Indigo hotels in the works.
One is to be created by the extensive renovation of an older hotel property in Fishers at the I-69 and 96th Street interchange. Another is going up in downtown Columbus as part of an expansion of the downtown mall and a facelift to the center of the city.
The Fishers and Columbus Indigo hotels are both due to open late this year.

Dora also could eventually have the closest hotel to the new Lucas Oil Stadium, the new football arena under construction in Downtown Indianapolis.

And in Plainfield, Tim Dora said the plan is to build an Indigo on a 2-acre site on Cambridge Way next to the Holiday Inn Express.
Plans for the design have not been filed with Plainfield town planners.
"We'll plan to start work on the exterior of the Holiday Inn Express in Plainfield as soon as possible and then hope to start the Indigo by the end of this year," Dora said.
Rates in these new "lifestyle" hotels are likely to range from $130 to $150 per night.

Indigo is a relatively new brand of InterContinental Hotels, the parent of Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza and other familiar brands.
Among the hallmarks of the Indigo design are bold blue and purple colors.

Besides a restaurant, pool and spa, the business center is equipped with computer work stations with USB ports for flash drives and Internet connections, both wired and wireless.

In the rooms, instead of the standard painted or wallpapered walls, there are photo murals. In place of the standard bath tub and shower is a glass-encased, spa-inspired shower stall.