The Hotel at Kirkwood Center
April 30, 2010
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
If the under-construction tour of The Hotel at Kirkwood Center was any indication, a major Iowa hospitality player is emerging on the sprawling campus of Kirkwood Community College.
While Kirkwood already boasts one of the top hospitality programs in the nation at a two-year college, the new hotel “lab,” scheduled for a July opening, will propel it to prominence.
“It will be a unique experience, very stylish, very surprisingly upscale, and compare favorably with any hotel in Iowa both in terms of meeting space and the sleeping room accommodations,” said R. Lee Belfield, general manager of the facility.
On Location! Kirkwood
The hotel will offer 71 guest rooms, 19,000 square feet of meeting space, including the ability to seat up to 450 people in its Conference Suite, and a Business Event Room.
A highlight will be its F&B offering, owing to the popularity of the school’s culinary programs.
“That’s a great reflection of the unique characteristics of the facility—it’s even included in the design of the building,” Belfield said. “We have to teach students a number of culinary techniques, so you end up with a remarkably broad menu as a result. Frankly, it affords us the ability to be very creative, and a lot of other hotels don’t have that—it’s good fortune.”