:
US: Colorado Mesa University is to build a boutique hotel on campus to train hospitality management and culinary students.
CMU’s board of trustees approved a $12 million to $14 million project to build on land that is now a commuter parking lot on Kennedy Avenue between Confluence Hall and the rugby field.
The 60-room hotel will include an attached restaurant and bar and will allow students in the hospitality management and culinary programs to work and intern there. Mars Hospitality, which also owns the Holiday Inn and Suites in Grand Junction, will operate the hotel.
“If you look at really outstanding hospitality management programs they tend to have a campus hotel,” said Tim Foster, CMU president. “We just try to give them as much experience as we can to set them apart from other institutions.”
Foster said the university is in talks with local restaurants that might be interested in operating the hotel’s bar and restaurant. The university hopes to open by the winter of 2019/2020.
