New $36 million hotel coming to Merced
The next addition to one of Merced’s newest shopping centers is about halfway complete and set to open next year. Those who have driven by Campus Parkway Plaza have seen the large project under construction.
The Hilton Garden Inn is scheduled to open in August or September of 2025, according to Daniel Moradzadeh, director of the Merced-based Shemoil’s Investment Development which owns the hotel and Campus Parkway Plaza property. The five-story hotel, which will consist of 133 rooms, is a $36 million project. “It’s taken three generations of investing in our local community by my family to get to this point,” Moradzadeh said. “It’s been a massive undertaking.”
The Hilton Garden Inn will become a new addition to the Campus Parkway Plaza, which already houses a Starbucks, Tractor Supply Co., Chipotle, McDonald’s, and two gas stations. The 44,224-square-foot hotel will sit on an 8.3 acre lot that sits on the southwest corner of Campus Parkway and Coffee Street. The hotel include a parking lot with landscaping components. The hotel will also have two kitchens, one dedicated to the hotel and the other to a banquet facility that will sit approximately 350 people. There will also be a full-service bar in the hotel. There will also be an outside sitting area with a fire pit. There are plans to have a projection TV near the outside bar area as well.
“The main reason why we decided to construct this hotel is because the City of Merced needs marquee development,” Moradzadeh said. “This will be something that’s not only elegant, but has the class to go with it.”
As a local investment and development company, Moradzadeh says they’ve hired local contractors, including Merced-based Marvulli Construction. “You want to keep as much money as possible with our local community,” Moradzadeh said. Moradzadeh felt the location for the new hotel is ideal with the freeway access at Campus Parkway, the proximity to UC Merced and the building of a nearby regional sports complex on the 40-acre Community Park 42, which will eventually host large sports tournaments.
Moradzadeh says the company was approached by many hotel and motel companies, but chose to go with Hilton Garden Inn because they allowed them to tailor the hotel to fit what they wanted to build in Merced. “We decided to secure our franchise with Hilton because they gave us the highest-rated brand we could bring to Merced,” Moradzadeh said. Moradzadeh says construction of the hotel has remained on schedule. “As far as our scope of construction goes, we’re approximately 50% done,” Moradzadeh said. “The structure is completed, it’s fully framed. We’re one year out from our our test runs.”
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