The Zionsville Redevelopment Commission on July 22 approved a contract with a consultant to perform a hotel market feasibility study, subject to finalizing contract terms and signature by the commission president.

Commissioners said the study is intended to measure demand in Zionsville, recommend an appropriate hotel product and identify up to two suitable site options. Redevelopment staff estimated the contract cost at $42,000 plus up to $2,500 in expenses and said the study should be complete in about eight weeks after a kickoff on execution.

The study will examine market demand, meeting-space needs, room quality and mix, food-and-beverage implications, brand/chain considerations and “site priorities and parameters,” staff said. Commissioners and staff said the project is intended both to inform town decision-making and to provide a third‑party report developers can use when seeking financing.

The commission described a competitive selection process. Staff and a committee that included President Kittner, Zach Lutz, Allison Gootwein (CEO, Discover Boone County) and Dr. Amanda Cecil (professor of tourism and hospitality at Indiana University–Indianapolis) reviewed refined proposals and interviewed finalists. The committee recommended Hunden Strategic Partners.

“We thought, in order to preserve the independence and the objectivity of the study … the town would pay for the study in whole,” a staff member said during the meeting. President Kittner said Hunden had more experience representing municipalities on projects like this and that the panel was “very qualified.”

Commissioners discussed bifurcating the work into two phases: the first to confirm demand and site priorities; the second to model fiscal and economic impacts, pro forma analysis and any need for public‑private partnership support if a project moves forward.

A motion to approve the agreement, subject to finalizing the firm’s and the town’s terms and allowing the president to sign once those terms are resolved, carried unanimously.

The commission did not set a follow‑up meeting for the study’s presentation at the July 22 meeting; staff said the on‑site work and kickoff call would start as soon as the contract is signed and the firm expects to deliver a draft in roughly eight weeks.