A Wichita hotel company plans to build a new $2.5 million Comfort Inn & Suites at the northwest corner of Ninth and Iowa streets.

The 60-room hotel will be south of the Travelodge already being renovated by S&B Hotels Inc., which recently acquired the properties.

The Travelodge renovation should be finished by early May, while the Comfort Inn should be open by March or April 2003, said Stanley Weilert, S&B’s president.

“I’ve been looking at Lawrence for three years,” Weilert said Wednesday, as he cleared out rooms on the third floor of the Travelodge, 801 Iowa. “It could use a nice, new hotel. We’re excited about being here.”

The Comfort Inn will have 60 rooms, 15 of them suites with whirlpool tubs. The hotel also will have an indoor pool and meeting rooms to draw both leisure travelers from the Kansas Turnpike and business customers and associations connected with nearby Kansas University.

“It’s an ideal site for a hotel,” said Michael Franklin, Travelodge manager. “This town’s ready for something new.”

S&B owns five other hotels in Kansas: a Hampton Inn, a Super 8 and a Days Inn in Salina; a Days Inn in Colby; and a Comfort Inn in Goodland.

Lawrence has about 1,000 hotel rooms, including those added last year with the arrival of SpringHill Suites by Marriott and Holiday Inn Express.

To make way for Comfort Inn, S&B will raze two buildings: a former service station and the former home of The Kettle restaurant. Construction is expected to begin by Sept. 1.

Travelodge will remain open during renovations, Weilert said. He’s giving away the hotel’s tables, wall hangings, dressers and televisions to KU students, who can peruse the stock that has been moved into the former Kettle restaurant, 821 Iowa.

The idea for the giveaway came from Weilert’s daughter, Leigh Weilert, a KU senior.

“You just need to have your student ID,” Stanley Weilert said.