Missouri Research Park is getting its first hotel.



A.M.E. Church building hotel in Missouri Research Park

St. Louis American

Thursday, September 6, 2007 8:29 AM CDT







Fifth District Development Arm starts construction



Bishop John R. Bryant, of the Fifth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is very pleased that a development arm of the district has closed the deal to fund the construction of a Wingate Inn in St. Charles County, a fast-growing suburb of St. Louis. The Fifth District Economic Development Fund, Inc. was created in 1977 by Bishop H. Hartford Brookins.



Bishop John, as Bryant is known by parishioners of the district, said for this hotel to be owned by the African Methodist Episcopal Church is “more than significant.”



The construction has begun on the 100-room hotel with an expected completion date in June 2008. The hotel will be located in the Missouri Research Park, overlooking the Missouri Bluffs Golf Course.



The hotel will feature a daily deluxe continental breakfast, 24 hour business center, fitness facilities, indoor-outdoor pool, whirlpool, and a conference room to seat up to 250 people.



The Missouri Research Park is the home to research and manufacturing tenants. The $7.5 million Wingate Inn will give companies in the 750-acre park more conference space for meetings, as well as a place for out-of town researchers, investors, and customers to stay over night.



Developed by the University of Missouri, the research park was conceived in the late 1980s as a way to replicate the success of Stanford Research Park in California and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. The concept was to lure technology companies with the promise of amenities and the chance to cluster around similar firms.



The park is home to more than 20 companies, two federal agencies and nearly 3,000 employees. The hotel will add to the environment created by other amenities, such as the 18-hole golf course and walking trails.



Harold Whitfield, chief executive officer for the economic arm of the Fifth Episcopal District, said the hotel will appeal to research park visitors as well as to tourists in Missouri’s wine country and bicyclists along the Katy Trail.



“This hotel will overlook the ninth hole of the golf course, and it will be visible from the highway,” Whitfield said. “I would say it’s in a very good location.”



The inn at Missouri Research Park is the first of several such investments that the Fifth District plans to make in the hospitality industry through its development fund.



Source

A lot of churches nowadays are getting into business enterprises.

Thank God the developers are African American otherwise this project would be ridiculed from now until the end of time.

Didn't a church build a theme park in North Carolina?



granted, not the best example. But if it fulfills their mission statement then I'm okay with it.



The church I in STL attended considered a coffee house/art gallery/music venue in FPSE as an outreach/community activity center as a way of affecting positive social change.



Personally, I find a hotel curious but who am I to judge motives?

Just doing his part to live up to his login name.

Aw come on Trent, you know it's true. It doesn't take much looking on the Saint Charles thread to see that practically every development except this one is described in less than pleasant ways by more than one personality here. And yet for some reason this one draws absolutely no negative comment.



I mean I know this one isn't that big of a deal but I am sure there was someone out there that was wanting to post something negative about it but just couldn't because it is a minority development.



I don't really care, I just find that interesting.

^ Apparently the architectural review board has some requests and until they are addressed the hotel will not open.