Earlier today, Saline Journal met with Saline Lodging Group managing partner Mark Kuykendall inside the emerging Best Western Premier (BWP) hotel building. [1]
Our agenda was to come away with a better understanding of meeting space offerings within and what they may promise for a wide variety of Saline community constituencies.
Last December, Mr Kuykendall and contractor Innerspace Design project manager Emily Uphaus sat down with Janet Deaton at our offices on East Michigan Avenue to review plans. After our May 2019 update then, closing references to ballroom function logistics piqued the most interest in further detail. [2,3]
“That makes sense,” Mr Kuykendall said. “Most people who live and work in this area will be more likely to experience the hotel through our gathering spaces. Our architects saw this early in the design phase, and they incorporated a seperate, classy entrance area for ballroom access from the main parking lot out front.”
More broadly, there’s a “social” mindset that instructs main floor Best Western Premier layout here. Higher ceilings throughout and more generously spaced hallways suggest that this more than a place to simply check-in and get to your room, or channel flow to bar or restaurant.
For example, a stand alone enclosed patio area seating approximately thirty people could as easily serve wedding showers as business luncheons. Located just off what’s informally called “the living room” (with fireplace), Saline Area Chamber of Commerce executive director John Tripolsky has weighed-in during own private tour of the building with his own ideas for appointments to help make it best reflect the pioneering history of Washtenaw County. [4,5]
The enclosed patio will have outside access to a firepit and is conveniently located near the hotel swimming pool, hot tub, fitness room, gift shop, and business services center.
“This is coming along as I was expecting it would,” Mayor Brian Marl told Saline Journal during his own guided walk-through of BWP-Saline on July 1. “It actually feels so much bigger on the inside than it looks like it would be from the outside.
I think a lot of people are going to be very pleased with what they see when the doors finally open for business here.
Mark Kuykendall also made the suggestion that members of Saline City Council come to see the building at this phase of construction on one of two dates he’s coordinated with Mayor Marl for later this month.
“There weren’t any provisions for this when we bought the property from the city and started building,” Mr Kuykendall explained. “In fact, I’m not aware of any other private project that’s done the sort of reporting we have — that we’ll continue to do.
It is a construction site. Any contractor is going to be concerned about that, about liability, with the tools that are around, even on days when crews aren’t actually in here working. We don’t have drywall up yet. It’s a safe working environment for crews. But people who aren’t familiar with construction safety may not know what labor knows.
Moving on to the ballroom(s), his pacing through the hallways slowed not so much in order to build anticipation as to point out thought and detail en route.
Infrastructure elements such as coat room and IT center are likely only to be noticed if they had been neglected. More apparent, then, are hallways that not only ease efficient movement of people, including those with special needs, but also equipment. Plans are also underway to utilize these large walls, some of which with dramatic approaches, for showcasing locally produced photography and art.
These open further into a pre-event area with large television monitors and audio, between the hallway and ballroom(s) proper. If used for overflow, Mr Kuykendall estimated that it could accomodate approximately fifty people.
From there, two separate entrances afford access to the ballroom(s). That grand area itself has the flexibility to be configured as a single space, or two separate spaces, each seating sixty people for meals. Among options for dining, plated food service could be provided, or a buffet setup either in the pre-event area or through sets of doors accessing the boardroom immediately off the west ballroom area.
When the ballroom is not being used in conjunction with ballroom functions, it can be accessed from one of its own other, separate entrances. Seating for approximately fourteen within is anticipated, and will include technology for virtual meeting support.
No doubt instructed by his decades of experience as a hotelier running established concerns, Mark Kuykendall seems very much set in an “opening day” mindset. While justifiably proud of the progress that has been made thus far on Best Western Premier Saline, he regularly expresses sentiment that a next update “should wait until we have something more polished to show.
Some people have a hard time visualizing construction without walls and paint and carpet and doors and lights and fixtures.
True enough.
At the same time, John Tripolsky “would love to have Mark come in and do a presentation with updates every few months at our BBRs.” He went on to tell Saline Journal that he planned to “check and see if August works on everyone’s schedule.
This is the audience the hotel needs to be in front of!
References
- “Best Western Premier” Best Western Hotels & Resorts.
- “It’s About Time For A Look Inside Best Western Premier Hotel That Will Be Open In Eastgate Saline Next Spring” Dell Deaton (December 21, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Progress Report on Saline Hotel: There were a lot of reasons to offer building tours for stockholders this week” Dell Deaton (May 1, 2019) Saline Journal.
- Saline Area Chamber of Commerce (home page).
- “Day 2 On The Job, And Our New Saline Area Chamber Of Commerce Director Has Little Desire To Sit In The Big Chair” Dell Deaton (December 11, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Building Business Relationships Breakfast” Saline Area Chamber of Commerce.
