Marotel To Build Hotel In Tuscany Hills

The city of Pocatello will soon have a new hotel, but not everyone is happy about it.

Marotel, LLC, an Idaho Falls company that already operates nine hotels, plans to build a Holiday Inn Express in the Tuscany Hills area of Pocatello.

Marotel is planning to build on a slope on the side of Vista Drive, just across the street from a neighborhood. Some people there don’t want to see a hotel so close to their homes, and spoke out against it to the Pocatello City Council.

The council had to change the zoning of the lot in order for Marotel to build. Despite the objections, the zoning request was passed, and the general counsel who oversees Marotel’s hotels, Derek Ence, said the hotel should be built within a year of the company’s plans being accepted.

“I’d be concerned, too, if someone was going to build a three story hotel right next to my house. I think the property owners will see that the visual impact that they were concerned about really isn’t there,” Ence said. “It’ll be the nicest hotel in Pocatello, by far.”

Ence said the area had been previously zoned for a hotel that was never built.

This was the only spot Marotel considered for building the Holiday Inn.