Kent and Cal Clausen, two brothers here who have been developing hotels since the early 1990s, plan to open a hotel in Coeur dAlene soon, as well as three other new lodging facilities in Western Washington, Montana, and Nevada, all within the next two years.


The Clausens co-own KVC Development Inc. and Sterling Hospitality Management LLC, both based in Spokane. KVC develops new hotel properties, while Sterling Hospitality operates them once theyve been built, says Kent Clausen, who is president of KVC and oversees the financial management of both companies.


Sterling Hospitality currently operates eight hotels in Washington, Utah, and Nevada, including three in the Spokane area, he says. The eight hotels bring in annual revenues totaling about $18 million, and KVC and Sterling Hospitality have a total of just under 300 employees, he says. The new properties are expected to add 120 employees to that work force.


The hotels are owned through separate companies in which the Clausen brothers are part owners. Those companies hold franchise agreements with Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, and Quality Inn to operate each hotel under one of those brand names, Clausen says.


The first of the planned new hotels to open will be a Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Coeur dAlene, at 2300 W. Seltice Way, which is expected to open in the next few weeks, he says. The roughly $8 million project marks KVCs first entry into that market. Spokane-based Vandervert Construction Inc. started building the 57,000-square-foot, 101-room hotel last November, he says. Lindquist Architects, of Spokane, designed the hotel, which Clausen says will employ about 30 workers and is expected to generate $2 million in revenues this year.


Its a growing market there, Clausen says. Theres a lot of interest from people outside the Northwest in that area.


Meanwhile, construction has started on a Hilton Garden Inn in Henderson, Nev., where Sterling Hospitality has operated a Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites hotel and a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel since 2001, he says. The $15 million project is expected to be completed by next January, he says. The new hotel will be the Clausen brothers first property under the Hilton Garden Inn brand name.


KVC also plans to expand its Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Henderson, he says. That project is expected to start this fall and will cost about $3 million.


Also this fall, KVC plans to start building a Holiday Inn Express in Kalispell, Mont., Clausen says. It expects to wrap up that $8 million project by late spring of 2007.


KVC currently is designing a Hilton Garden Inn thats expected to open in the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood, in 2008, Clausen says. Construction of that $18 million project, which will include a convention center, is expected to start next year, he says.


In 2000, the company had said it planned to open a hotel in Liberty Lake, but those plans were put on hold after the terrorist attacks of 2001, Clausen says. It still hopes to build a hotel there in the next two years, he says. The company also is considering opening other hotels in this area, but he declines for now to disclose further details.


Although the Clausen brothers currently are expanding their holdings, Kent says he and Cal want to limit the number of hotels they own, so they can stay closely involved in managing the facilities.


We dont care about how many pins we stick in the map, Clausen says. Were very hands on, and we like doing it that way.


The Clausen brothers have implemented several techniques to foster a personable environment at their hotels, he says. Desk clerks are required to write at least three handwritten notes during each shift to guests they met that day and mail them to guests homes, he says. Maintenance workers scrape ice off guests cars during the winter. In addition, dogs live at two hotels the company owns in Spokane Valley and act as stress relief managers for guests, he says.


Clausen says he and his brother are carrying on a business legacy that their father, Vern, started nearly three decades ago. Vern Clausen developed a Super 8 motel in Missoula, Mont., in 1977, and eventually owned a total of 13 Super 8s in six states by the time he died in 1992, Kent Clausen says. Since then, Kent and Cal have sold those motels, including a 300-room Super 8 in Las Vegas they sold last January.


Prior to helping form KVC and Sterling Hospitality, Cal Clausen was involved in hotel management while Kent Clausen worked as a certified public accountant in Seattle and also worked for a real estate agency there. The brothers had planned to start developing hotels with their father before he died, Kent Clausen says. Shortly thereafter, they bought land on a prominent basalt bluff just north of the Spokane River and west of Division Street, where they developed a Holiday Inn Express.


Kent and Cals brother, Clay, was a part owner of KVC, but left the family enterprise two years ago to develop homes in the Spokane area, Clausen says. KVC and Sterling Hospitality have their administrative offices in about 1,500 square feet of space in the basement of a Quality Inn Valley Suites hotel that Sterling Hospitality operates in Spokane Valley.


Clausen says occupancy levels at KVCs hotels in the Spokane area have been rising over the past two years, and he expects that trend will continue through the remainder of this year.


Spokane has historically been a pretty stable market for the lodging industry, he says. Business has been going well, and I expect that to remain the case.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.