Adams County breaks ground

CORNING – With the addition of newer retail shops and restaurants such as Primrose Restaurant and Rugged Lace Mercantile, longtime favorites in Sweet Desire's Bakery and Breadeaux Pizza, and the renovation of the Corning Opera House and nearby Icarian Village, it appears the town is having a bit of a renaissance. It's latest development: a 33-room hotel, which the Adams County Economic Development Corporation broke ground on Aug. 12.

"We've seen the need for a number of years," said Beth Waddle, Adams Community Economic Development Corporation executive director. "As we increase other economic activities in the community, more people are looking to visit or do more business-to-business encounters and look to stay locally, but the options ... didn't really afford a lot of possibilities for visitors."

Waddle said the development group has observed "economic leakage" into neighboring communities over the years and believes the hotel is another opportunity to increase economic opportunities and keep money within the community. She said the idea is has been well supported by the community as a whole.

"Even the county board of supervisors looked at it ... but the timing was never right or other projects came up quicker," she said.

Waddle said, by not having larger overnight accommodations for travelers has resulted in a loss of business opportunities for the community.

"We've been getting several bus tour companies looking to do maybe a two day visit in our community, but then once they find out, in order to reserve enough rooms, they have to go 30 miles away ... they won't do a second day. Then they just come for a two hour visit or part of a day. That's less time in the community to, not only see the sights, but also spend money in our retail businesses, eat meals in our restaurants and spend the night in our community," Waddle said.

The Corning Hotel

The 33-room, two-story hotel will include two extended-stay rooms with kitchenettes, a double king suite, and various king and queen rooms. Amenities will include cable TV, wireless internet, guest laundry and breakfast.

Waddle said the hotel features were selected after years of research.

"It started with the Adam Community Economic Development Corporation. They did the research and the feasibility study ... we visited with three, four different chain hotels, but then we also visited with private motels ... and other private hotels, trying to get a sense of what made the most sense for Corning and Adams County. It lead us to doing a private hotel," she said.

The hotel, which will sit off Highway 34 just west of the Corning Winery, was designed by DCI Group, based in Des Moines.

During its ground-breaking ceremony, Brandon Schulte, Vice-President of DCI Group, introduced the team that will be working on the project and shared their enthusiasm for the Project.

“DCI is a design-build company, and we look forward to starting the build part of the process.”

Waddle said the project has generated a lot of interest. To date, the Corning Hotel has 46 local or locally connected investors that make up the LLC.

"I can't say enough about our community ... our community supports each other very well. I can't say enough about the support we got for the hotel, too," she said.