April 21, 2026

By Mary Beth Gahan

The town council put off a vote on a proposed extended stay hotel for two weeks after pushback from residents and a meeting that stretched nearly five hours.

The developer of Lakeside Crossing asked the town for an amendment to a planned development to allow a Residence Inn to be built west of Long Prairie and south of Lakeside Parkway.

The planning and zoning commission recommended denial for the request in February, which requires a super majority of town council members to override. At last night’s meeting, town council members seemed open to working with the developer on exceptions like less parking spots than the town mandates, but would not budge on their opposition to an extended stay hotel.

The spot is zoned to allow a hotel, but special permission is needed to build what the town considers an “extended stay” property.

“Extended Stay Hotel means a type of Hotel or Motel establishment designed to accommodate extended stays by the business traveler or extended vacation traveler, with financial consideration being calculated on a nightly or weekly basis,” the town ordinance reads.

The developer, Jimmy Archie of Realty Capital, had a Brandon Harris, a representative from Marriott, speak about the Residence Inn brand.

“There's kind of a misnomer on what extended stay hotels are,” Harris said. “Sometimes when you think of extended stay hotels, you're thinking people are going to be staying for 30, 60 nights. And sometimes in the industry, we call them the 'undesirable guest.' You may not want them in your town.”

At Residence Inn, he said, the national average length of stay is 2.7 nights.

Harris showed photos of several Residence Inn properties across the country. In many cities, Residence Inn is among the highest-rated on the Marriott app, beating out even flagship Marriott properties.

It wasn’t enough to appease town council members, who received more than 150 emails about the project, with residents expressing concerns about the quality of hotel and its guests.

“It’s possible that based on the public feedback, which has been pretty overwhelming, that an extended stay is not going to be in the cards,” deputy pro tem mayor Adam Schiestel told the developer.

Clayton Flurry, who owns Flurry’s Market + Provisions, spoke in favor of the hotel and called out council members for making up their mind before the public spoke at the meeting. He said the businesses would benefit from the repeat customers a Residence Inn would bring.

“Lakeside needs to be finished,” Flurry said. “Lakeside needs to work and it’s only going to work if there are people there.”

Resident Elena Johnson said she was excited when the first iteration of the development called for a boutique hotel with a rooftop bar, but said an extended stay hotel would not mesh well with its surroundings of “million-dollar townhomes” and multi-million dollar condominiums in Lakeside Tower.

“I just don't know that that weight equates to each other,” she said. “Secondarily, has anyone thought through that there's already a Residence Inn 3.5 miles away at the end of 2499?”

Planning and zoning commissioner Scott Langley echoed the idea that the Residence Inn wouldn’t be nice enough to match the area and draw in visitors.

“I think we can do something wonderful here, instead of something that’s kind of mediocre,” Langley said.

Once it became clear during deliberation that the town council would not vote in favor of the amendment, the council moved onto other agenda items while the developers discussed what a second option might look like without the extended stay designation.

Archie printed out a list of hotel chains as rated by Smith Travel Research, a company that provides hotel data and insights. When they returned to the Lakeside Crossing hotel item at the end of the meeting, Archie handed council members the list and said they were willing to do an upscale hotel, according to Smith Travel Research ratings, but could not commit to an upper upscale hotel because it would compete with a planned Autograph by Marriott property nearby.

The rooms in another hotel would be standard rather than suites, Archie said, and the property size could be drawn down 17 percent to 98,000 square feet.

By the end of the meeting, deputy pro tem mayor Adam Schiestel said they were “talking in circles” and offered to table the discussion to give everyone more time.

“I would rather not table it,” Mayor Cheryl Moore said.

Schiestel said he didn’t want to deny the project and it was clear it would not pass if it came to a vote at that time.

Council member Chris Drew said he wanted to delay a final vote on the project so he could talk with residents to make sure they’re getting what they want. Schiestel and council member Janvier Werner said they wanted to give the developer time to come back with certain brand names that would be acceptable to the public.

Brian Taylor was the one council member to vote against tabling it.

The project will come before council at its next regularly scheduled meeting, which is May 4.