Santa Fe Springs : Consultant Will Study Need for New Cottage-Like Hotel

The Redevelopment Agency has voted to hire a Los Angeles consulting firm to see if the time is right for a new hotel in this small, heavily industrialized town. The $12,500 study by Keyser Marston Associates Inc. will take about three months.

Santa Fe Springs is home to more than 3,000 businesses, swelling the daytime population from 15,500 to more than 100,000. With the commerce comes business travelers needing places to stay, said Paul Ashworth, city planner.

“Rather than having them go to Whittier or Norwalk, we’d like to retain those business clients in our city,” Ashworth said.

Santa Fe Springs currently has a handful of older hotels and the recently completed Days Inn. Ashworth said the next hotel likely would sport a different look than the others, having cottage-like units compatible with the architecture of the historic Clarke Estate. The 60-year-old estate, a relic of the town’s pre-oil boom days, opened recently as a museum and community meeting hall.