Grand Island welcomes new extended stay motel

A growing trend in the nation’s hospitality industry are hotels that specialize in extended stays for visitors.

A new hotel, MainStay Suites at 3051 S. Locust St., opened earlier this month, provides extended stay options for people visiting Grand Island, whether for business or pleasure.

MainStay is owned by Sandra Milton and Nathan and Melissa DeLaet. Milton is the director of patient safety and risk at Mary Lanning in Hastings. She also owns the Rodeway Inn in Grand Island, where Nathan DeLaet has served as general manager for the past nine years. Melissa DeLaet worked as the executive director of Hope Harbor until last August when she left to assist her husband with the hotel business.

At the new MainStay Suites, Nathan is the general manager of the hotel and Melissa is the director of sales and marketing.

Heritage Hospitality, LLC, was developed in honor of Milton’s husband, Rick, who passed away over five years ago. He originally purchased the land on which MainStay sits with plans for building a RV Park.

MainStay Suites is a 58-room extended stay hotel which targets guests staying for three or more days. It employs 12 people. Rates are discounted based on the amount of time each individual is staying and start at $95. Each of the rooms features a homelike living suite with a stove, refrigerator, microwave and pull out couch.

Melissa DeLaet said MainStay also offers a limited number of one-bedroom suites which offer a separate bedroom from the living spaces. The property includes a fitness room, Marketplace, small meeting room and free hot breakfast.

With its South Locust location, MainStay is located near several Grand Island attractions such as the Nebraska State Fairgrounds, Stuhr Museum, Central Community College, Fonner Park and Island Oasis.

Melissa DeLaet said work on the MainStay project began in 2010 with a feasibility study which showed that an extended stay hotel would reach a niche market not tapped into in the Grand Island area at the time.

She said the project was put on hold during the economic slowdown in Grand Island and picked back up last year after gaining TIF money from the City of Grand Island. The project is financed by Equitable Bank. MainStay Suites officially opened May 19.

She also said they decided to build a MainStay because of their success working with the Choice International Brand at Rodeway Inn. They also recognized a need for extended stay hotels in the Grand Island area and are “proud to be the first and only hotel to offer services of its kind in the area.”

Brad Mellema, executive director of the Grand Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, said MainStay provides an option with extended stays that was needed in Grand Island with the growth of the Nebraska State Fair, Husker Harvest Days and other events that helped the community’s visitor industry grow.

Nathan DeLaet began his career in the hotel industry by graduating from the hotel management program at Central Community College-Hastings. He worked at the Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn Express in Kearney before meeting Rick Milton in 2006 and taking the position as general manager of the Rodeway Inn.

Until his passing in 2009, Rick Milton mentored Nathan DeLaet and under DeLaet’s direction, Rodeway continued seeing successes with the hotel being awarded Platinum Hospitality Award in 2009, 2010, and 2015 and the Gold Hospitality Award four years in a row (2011-2014).

DeLaet and Rodway were also awarded several APEX awards by Choice Hotels International.

Because of the successes of the Rodeway, DeLaet said her husband and Sandra Milton agreed to embark on a partnership.

“Heritage Hospitality was developed in honor of Rick Milton who was known as Mr. Hospitality and had worked for hotels in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska,” DeLaet said.

MainStay Suites’ phone number is 382-9280. More information can be found online at www.mainstaysuitesgi.com.

By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com