The tourism sector has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the recovering economy in Central Oregon, as total room-tax collections have set records in each of the last 11 months where data are available. While employment levels in the leisure and hospitality sector for Deschutes County remain below their pre-recession highs, developers are encouraged enough to bring several new hotel projects to Bend.

The South Dakota-based hotel chain My Place Hotels of America had an application to build a $2.7 million, four-story hotel at 550 SW Bond Street approved by the city of Bend in January. Notably, the hotel will be within a mile of the recently completed Hampton Inn & Suites, which opened near the Old Mill District in September.

Matt Blackburn, the general manager of the Hampton Inn, said the emergence of the Old Mill District as a destination made the company’s decision of where to locate the 114-room hotel easy.

“We knew the Old Mill District was the only place in Bend we wanted to build,” Blackburn said.

Just down the road on SW Industrial Way, the Montana-based Braxton Development won approval to build a four-story Springhill Suites on the former site of the Brooks-Scanlon crane shed. The Marriott-brand hotel will feature 105 rooms, according to plans submitted with the city of Bend. Braxton Development expects to begin construction on the property in spring 2016, according to the company’s website.

Finally, a hotel has been proposed for the northern edge of downtown, at the northeast corner of NE Olney Avenue and NW Wall Street by the Springfield-based InnSight Hotel Management Group. The company’s plans call for between 100 and 120 rooms, according to Bulletin archives, though no formal plans have been submitted.

For local and regional tourism promotion agencies, these developments are a sign that the hard-hit tourism sector is growing again.

“Bend’s tourism industry has gone through a major transformation over the past (10) years, but the city’s lodging inventory has evolved at a much slower pace than other segments of the tourism industry,” Doug La Placa, CEO of Visit Bend, wrote in an email.

La Placa added that the existing stock of hotel rooms can be depleted during the busy summer months, and the agency’s statistics bear that out as well. In 2014, Bend’s hotels averaged an occupancy rate of more than 85 percent from June through August.

“The new hotels being developed in Bend will be in high demand by both leisure and business travelers,” La Placa wrote.

Alana Hughson, president and CEO of the Central Oregon Visitor’s Association, said she was cautiously optimistic about the trajectory of the tourism industry. While she acknowledged the need to continue developing the traditionally lighter fall and spring seasons, she said the industry had seen tremendous recovery.

“All the reports are indicating that we’re going to have a very strong summer season,” Hughson said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com