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By TYLER RALEY | Special to the Reporter

CHELSEA — Following years of planning and development, the city of Chelsea officially welcomes a lodging option to travelers from abroad with the opening of the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham.

The city’s first hotel is located off of U.S. 280 and U.S. 31 at 44 Atchison Parkway next to Tractor Supply Co. and Scooter’s Coffee.

Chelsea mayor Tony Picklesimer mentioned how notable this opening is, understanding that it will make a prominent impact throughout the city in many aspects.

“Any time you have an investment of this multitude in a city, it’s big,” Picklesimer said. “From the city standpoint, what excites me about it the most is it raises the population of our city by a hundred people a day… It’s a hundred people that will spend money in our city outside of what they paid for the hotel. It’s just a huge economic boost.”

The planning for making the hotel a reality took numerous years, but the city of Chelsea eventually closed on a deal with Auburn Hospitality, who now owns the hotel.

The 87-room, pet-friendly La Quinta Inn & Suites offers a number of amenities to its guests. Each room is equipped with a flat-screen HDTV, mini refrigerator, microwave, desk, bath products, coffee and tea maker and more. The hotel also offers free WiFi, along with its business center, meeting room, game room, laundry room and convenience store. 

In addition to what the hotel does for the city of Chelsea and the people that travel to this destination, it provides financial assistance for the entire county to place on other projects.

County Manager Chad Scroggins spoke on the importance of the lodging tax that Chelsea now has, knowing from a county-wide perspective, this is a momentous occasion.

“We utilize lodging tax from those that are staying in these hotels to reinvest in community improvements,” Scroggins said. “It’s important for the whole 808 square miles of Shelby County that Chelsea has this new offering.”

Lodging tax is an additional fee that is added onto a guest’s original rate for staying at a hotel, which is then reinvested into other economic development projects in an area. For Shelby County, that tax is 4%.

Scroggins went on to discuss how Chelsea’s new addition expands its daytime economic population and development as it provides an avenue for local businesses to receive traffic from incoming travelers to choose to stay at the hotel.

Picklesimer shares the same sentiment, and to him, it is just what he envisioned when he created his campaign to become the mayor of this city.

“It is a promise kept,” Picklesimer said. “From before the time I got elected in 2016, one of my goals was to bring a hotel to Chelsea, because daytime population helps everything. It helps your restaurants, it helps your local businesses, your gas stations… Daytime population is something that is a focus for me. It has been a focus for me and a hotel really helps that.”

Anyone interested in booking a room at the La Quinta Inn & Suites or learning more information can visit their website, Wyndhamhotels.com/laquinta/chelsea-alabama/la-quinta-inn-suites-chelsea/overview.