HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Racing season is underway at Oaklawn, but the handicappers at the track are not the ones making the biggest bets.
Hotel developers are putting their money into projects that could change the face of Hot Springs.
“There is no city in the state of Arkansas (that has) a location like this, with the lodging and the hot spring,” Rajesh Mehta said, “which is very booming right now, as we all know.”
Clouds hang over Lake Hamilton on a recent morning, just outside the window of the room Mehta is sitting in, offering a hint of the fun people will have here. Likewise, fading paint outside the Clarion Hotel Mehta owns partly obscures better things to come.
“I think it’s a bit crazy right now,” Mehta said of his hotel. “Too much going on. But, I think, once we are done with this remodeling, I think it will be one of the best products in the state of Arkansas.”
The hotel will be closed until fall for a $20 million renovation, and it will re-brand as a DoubleTree.
“It’s as big as you can get on a renovation,” said Sean Cadzow, the hotel’s general manager. “We’re keeping in mind why guests come here to begin with and why we want to run a hotel here, and then take it to the next level, to benefit everybody.”
The rooms will have all the high-tech features, including check-in and appliances that can be controlled by an app. The banquet rooms on the top floor will be remodeled, and the outside will feature a new beach, along with a new dock and pool. Mehta said he plans to project movies and sporting events on the outside wall of the hotel near the pool, creating a unique environment to watch Arkansas Razorbacks football games, or unwind after a day on the lake.
Mehta, whose company owns six hotels in Arkansas with another under construction, claims there will not be a combination of luxury and location like this anywhere else in the state.
“Being in the market for the past 12 years, we know the market, we know what the guest needs, what the wants are of the guest,” he stated. “So, I think this will be the perfect location for us, as well as for the city and the state.”
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said the demands of visitors to Hot Springs have changed in recent years.
“They want something different,” he said. “They want a unique experience. They don’t want to do what they’ve always done.”
The DoubleTree is not the only different experience in the world in Hot Springs. Oaklawn Racing and Gaming is preparing for a $100 million expansion that will include a new casino floor, an event center, and 200 rooms overlooking either the track or the mountains.
“That’s incredible,” Arrison gushed. “That will… probably the largest project in, maybe in the history—or in the recent memory, for sure—in Hot Springs.”
Beyond simply the largest, the president of Oaklawn has designs on it being the best project, as well. “There’s not many four-star hotels in the state. We hope to be a four-star, maybe even a five-star, once we get finished,” Louis Cella said. “So, we want it to be a very elevated, excellent, wonderful type of environment for our patrons, because they deserve that. They see that quality of racing, and it absolutely will mimic that.”
Cella said the expanded gaming area, as authorized when voters approved Amendment 100 in November, 2018, will open next winter. He expects the hotel and event center to open before the start of the 2021 racing season.
A handful of clothing boutiques and specialty shops have opened up downtown in recent years, and Cella believes adding all this upscale hotel space will bring even more high-end shopping to the Spa City.
“I think you’ll grow into it,” he explained. “I think you’ve seen that in all jurisdictions, when a high-end hotel, a high-end retailer comes in. (A rising tide) really does raise all the boats. And I think you’ll see the quality raise everywhere, in all aspects of the hospital industry. Hospitality, as well as the retail; it’s gonna be spectacular!”
While the hotel construction is just getting started, Arrison explained that the process may have started by accident in 2014.
“You know, the Majestic fire sort of, inadvertently, I think, started all of this,” he said. “It got people thinking, and now, you know, the citizens are going to have their input to decide what they think should go there. And then the city board will go out and hopefully find a great match for that pretty iconic, historic piece of property, that could have a great economic impact on our downtown area.”
The Hot Springs Board of Directors have partnered with teams from the University of Arkansas and Kansas State University for a study about the best uses for the former Majestic site, at the north end of famed Central Avenue. The Arlington hotel sold in 2017 and its new ownership started improving it immediately. Arrison added that the abandoned Vespa Rose Hotel on Fountain Street could be sold soon.
Cella believes creating high-end hotel space will mean new opportunities for all businesses in Hot Springs, “because that’s going to bring in clientele that is really going to benefit the entire community. If it’s not just the retail, it’s the other hotels, it’s the other restaurants. It really, truly, will benefit everyone. And we’re excited. We are so excited for the city of Hot Springs in a couple years from now, because it will really be terrific.”
Arrison agreed. He said the hospitality industry is a main driver for the growth of the city.
“People that visit, these are the people that are trying you out,” he explained. “They might come back here and retire here. They might just move their company here.
“Our tourism numbers increase every year. We’re seeing more people coming back. I think they like the experience in Hot Springs, they like all we have to offer.”
While the changes will bring with them higher prices, Arrison does not believe the current Hot Springs visitor will be ignored or affected.
“Hot Springs has always attracted lots of different people,” he mentioned, “from very different socioeconomic…you’ve got some people who are here just for a day—day-trippers—we have people here for the week, we have people that have second homes. We have a lot of, you know, 50 percent of our business comes from Texas and from within the state of Arkansas. So, we sort of see it all, you know?"
“I think people understand: Hot Springs is Hot Springs. You know, downtown is only so big. I mean, we still have the mountains, we still have the national park. We have five lakes in this area. You know, none of that is going to change. We’re America’s first resort!”
That resort comes into clearer view as morning clouds give way to afternoon sun, which glistens off Lake Hamilton and shines on Bathhouse Row. Mehta walks through the construction zone in his hotel, smiling as he thinks of what the future holds inside and out.
“We are excited,” he said, “and we are ready to go!”