Terre Haute adding hotel rooms
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Tourism in Terre Haute has increased and in order to host all of its guests, the city is making some big moves.
The Terre Haute City Council has recently approved the issuing of $6.9 million in bonds by the redevelopment commission. That money is a part of a $17 million public incentive package that will be used to expand tourism in the city.
The package is made up of bonds, ARPA funds, and money from the state.
Executive Director of the Terre Haute Visitors Bureau, Karen Dyer, said the money will be used to add a hotel in downtown Terre Haute.
'Terre Haute is growing', Dyer said. 'Our tourism grew 6.8% last year over the previous year. We don't quite have enough hotel rooms to meet the need for big functions, big sporting events, conferences, and trade shows that we would like to have, especially downtown.'
The new hotel will add over 100 new rooms, across the street from the Hilton Garden Inn, just next to Indiana State University.
Dyer said the universities play a big role in downtown visitors.
'We have sports tournaments and different things that go on throughout the year', Dyer said. 'We're a very heavy sports destination for our tourism, especially with our three colleges and our three college sports teams. We are hosting a lot of championships, national championships, regional championships, so we're using all of our hotel inventory a lot.'
Dyer says the plan will be to build a connection between the new hotel and the Hilton Garden Inn, which is already connected to the Terre Haute Convention Center.
General Manager of the Convention Center, Tennille Wanner, said that the most important aspect is walkable rooms.
Guests will be able to enjoy an entire event without having to leave the building.
'Having an area where folks can park their car and be able to go to their room, go to a convention, go to their meetings', Wanner said. 'Then if they wanted to go back to their room, be able to quickly get back to their room and change, make phone calls, things like that. Then get back to their meetings. It's really important so they aren't leaving a conference.'
Dyer said the hotel will be built for guests, but the money that will be spent downtown will have an effect on the entire city.
'The hospitality industry accounts for about 6% of our jobs locally, which is about 32,00 jobs and 58 cents of every dollar that a tourist spends here, stays here', Dyer said.'
Dyer says the hotel will be a Courtyard.
The city is hopeful it will be finished in time for Indiana State to host the 2026 Cross Country Nationals.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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