Developer hopes Island Park Marriott will become community hub
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ISLAND PARK — Old timers remember the day when Mack’s Inn was a social hub in Island Park.
People would gather for dinner, drinks and weekend dances. Visitors on their way to Yellowstone National Park would stop in, have lunch and spend summer days fishing and floating on the river.
Now a developer wants to bring that feeling back to the area by building a 115-room Marriott SpringHill Suites Hotel on the current Mack’s Inn site.
Island Park Hospitality, managed by Utah-based Ensign Hospitality, is working with Headwaters Construction on the project. The project is in the final phases of getting approval by the Island Park Planning and Zoning Commission. It will then go before city council for council members to vote on the development.
“We opened Cafe Sabor in Island Park four years ago. Since then, we’ve always wanted to bring Mack’s Inn back to what it was once was,” Justin Hamilton of Ensign Hospitality tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We’ve been building hotels for 14 years and believe this will be a great gathering place.”
The company owns a number of Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn and Marriott hotel locations in Utah including: Tremonton, Logan, Salt Lake City and near Zion National Park. The SpringHill Suites will have “an Island Park feel,” according to Hamilton, and would be the only Marriott between Rexburg and Yellowstone National Park.
“You’re staying on the banks of the river with beautiful views. You can go into the park, have a great day and then come back to a relaxing atmosphere,” Hamilton says.
Plans call for the hotel to have a restaurant and retail shopping areas. Owners hope to offer floating, fishing and oversized parking for RVs and snowmobilers.
A public hearing on the project will be held with the Planning and Zoning Commission at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 2 at the Island Park EMS building. If the hotel is approved, it will take two years to build.
“We hope to have it finished by 2020,” Hamilton says. “We believe it will be a great addition to Island Park.”