BEATRICE – It opened in late July, but a new hotel in north Beatrice was the scene of a ribbon-cutting Thursday night. Operators of the My Place Hotel, Dan and K.J. Patel, celebrated by donating $500 to Blue Valley Community Action, an agency they have worked with.


The My Place Hotel is part of a chain that offers overnight and extended stay accommodations. The Aberdeen, South Dakota-based company, has been growing, according to CEO Ryan Rivett.


"Today, we've built 66 of these My Places...across 29 states...and there's about 25 more that are currently on the way and a lot more beyond that. We're excited to continue to engage in new communities like Beatrice and others around the country with properties that are appropriately sized."


Beatrice Mayor Stan Wirth says new hotel development in the city followed a study conducted, to determine the level of need for additional lodging in the community. The 2017 survey of local business representatives and the study showed that the area needed an additional 45 to 50 rooms of lodging.


"The industry says that money turns about two-and-a-half times...so if you take that into consideration...this has generated a little over two million dollars already in economic impact to our community...and, it's only going to get better as time goes on."


Rivett said the My Place Hotel fit into the need of the community that was indicated in the lodging study.  "There's a lot of hotels out there that need to have 80 or 90 or 100 rooms to build in. Those hotels are not feasible for communities of this size. They would be oversized and they wouldn't necessarily be a good investment for the community, at this time. Our focus is 46, 64, 85 rooms....things that are more sustainable across all types of economic circumstances. While My Place is an extended stay hotel..only about 40 percent of the people that stay in My Places are staying for a week, or longer, across the country. We have the extended stay amenities to accomodate anybody, whether it's one night, one week or one month or longer. But, they're a great hotel, a great quality of property for any type of stay for any reason of stay."


The new hotel is located adjacent to the Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Conference Center, off U.S. Highway 77. A reception, tours and ribbon cutting were held Thursday.