Residence Inn to open in downtown Des Moines this week

A 127-room Residence Inn by Marriott — one of the first products of downtown’s hotel building boom — was scheduled to open Thursday,  hotel developers announced earlier this week.

The riverfront hotel, at 100 S.W. Water St., is about a block north of Principal Park.

Hawkeye Hotels, a Burlington-based development company, is building the Residence Inn along with an adjacent Hampton Inn that is scheduled to open later this year.

Plans for new hotels are popping up around downtown. All told, they could add more than 1,000 rooms to the area.

Officials representing downtown and the city of Des Moines say the hotels will fill under-served niches, like the extended-stay and limited-service hotel markets popular among corporate travelers.

The Residence Inn will offer studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites.  Designed for stays of five nights or longer, each suite includes a kitchen and separate living area.

“Our goal is to build a presence in the downtown market and satisfy a need and want for our future guests,” general manager Daryl Rixman said in a news release.

Reported by:  DesMoinesRegister.com