Tim O’Reilly details $14M north-side hotel plans

O’Reilly Hospitality Management LLC has big plans for north Springfield.

The company broke ground June 7 on a $2.2 million, 11,000-square-foot mixed-use building to house a Macadoodles and Tropical Smoothie Cafe this fall. Next up is a hotel on the same 5.8-acre parcel O’Reilly owns at 3050-80 N. Kentwood Ave. along Interstate 44.

Within six months, O’Reilly Hospitality plans to start development of a $14 million Holiday Inn Express. CEO Tim O’Reilly said the four-story, 115-room hotel would clock in at around 80,000 square feet and take a year to build.

“Based on our success at the DoubleTree and Houlihan’s, it seems like north Springfield is an underserved market,” he said, referencing his company’s hotel and restaurant combination that’s less than 2 miles south of the new development site. “It’s a hospitality destination.”

O’Reilly said the company is pulling the trigger on a Holiday Inn Express franchise license it has held for about a year with InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE: IHG).

He said the hotel, Macadoodles and Tropical Smoothie Cafe development site would have an oasis theme, with trees, picnic tables and spots where vendors could sell goods in a small farmers market-style setting.

“This will be our first test of how a Macadoodles and a hotel work together,” said O’Reilly, whose company operates another Macadoodles in Republic. “People will stop in Springfield when maybe they wouldn’t otherwise.”

O’Reilly Hospitality, which currently manages 22 hotels and restaurants, has three hotels in Springfield, including Hilton Garden Inn on the south side and TownePlace Suites by Marriott near Mercy Hospital Springfield.