The still under construction Homewood Suites at the southwest corner of Ellsworth and Rittenhouse roads will be able to put a personal touch on one of its signs.
The Queen Creek Planning & Zoning Commission voted 5-0 on Oct. 14 to approve an amendment to the hotel’s comprehensive sigh package. Commissioners Ashley Baldwin and Spencer Hale were absent.
Chelsea United Group, owner of the Homewood Suites, requested that the hotel be allowed to erect a monument sign on Rittenhouse Road that is exclusively for the hotel.
The Homewood Suites falls under an existing comprehensive sign plan for the QC District in downtown.
“Though not a direct part of the adjacent QC District commercial development, this property was included in the QC District comprehensive sign plan. The (plan) addresses a number of signage provisions, including wall-mounted and monument signs,” according to a staff report. “The hotel is currently under construction, and signage includes wall-mounted signage, which was subject to and is in compliance with the (plan).”
The QC District sign plan includes two monument signs to be placed along Rittenhouse Road near the hotel. One sign will identify the district and the other will be a multi-tenant sign.
Les Johnson, principal planner for the town, told the commission that the QC District signs have not been built, but the district wants to retain rights to the earmarked monument signs.
“Therefore, (Chelsea United Group is) requesting an amendment to the (plan) in order to establish their own independent monument sign that would be located just east of the existing driveway that’s on Rittenhouse,” Johnson said. “This is a fairly small monument sign, and staff does not believe it would be an aesthetic blight or cause any issues because of that close proximity to those prospective future monument signs.”
The proposed Homewood Suites monument sign will be 6 feet in height and 7.5 feet in width. The base will be constructed of painted metal and stone veneer to match the hotel, and only the lettering on the sign will be illuminated as opposed to its entire sign face, the report stated.
In June 2022, the Queen Creek Town Council voted to approve the sale of the land to Tempe-based HD Management, a partner in the project with Chelsea United Group, for more than $1.9 million.
Construction started on the four-story, 124-room hotel in fall 2024 and it is scheduled to open in early 2027, according to the town’s economic development department.
The hotel will have an outdoor pool, a public meeting room space, conference space and an exercise room, the website of architect of record FFKR Architects stated.
This will be the town’s second hotel. The first, the Hampton Inn Queen Creek at 20768 E. Maya Road, opened in December 2020 and contains 107 rooms. Before opening, the closest hotel to Queen Creek was the Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix East Mesa in Gilbert.
Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Janet Perez News Editor | Queen Creek &
San Tan Valley
Meet Janet Janet Perez joined Independent Newsmedia as editor of the Queen Creek Independent and Florence Independent in 2020. She started her career in 1989 with the Gannett-owned El Paso Times. In 1992, she moved to Tempe and has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. She left Arizona for three years to work at New Mexico State University and Baylor University before returning to work at Arizona State University. Missing the business, she went back to journalism in 2017.
Community: A long-time pet owner, she supports animal welfare causes.
Education: University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in journalism and a minor in political science.
Random Fact: She had a head full of random facts.
Hobbies: Reading, watching documentaries, cooking and playing with her dogs.
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