Spokane Valley-based Sterling Hospitality Management LLC plans to open SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotels in Coeur d'Alene and Wenatchee with a combined value of $23 million in the next two years, says Cal Clausen, Sterling's president.

Sterling's sister company, kVc Development Inc., also of Spokane Valley, will develop the hotels and Sterling will operate them, he says. The development company is headed up by Clausen's brother, Kent Clausen.

The $11 million, 109-room Wenatchee hotel is expected to open next spring in Wenatchee, and the $12 million, 120-room Coeur d'Alene hotel tentatively is planned to open in the spring of 2011, Clausen says. It will be built next to the 101-room Holiday Inn Express that Sterling Management opened at 2300 W. Seltice Way in 2006.

Bids are being sought for construction of the Wenatchee hotel, and a contractor will be selected next month, Clausen says. The Coeur d'Alene facility is still in the design phase, and hasn't been put out to bid yet, he says.

Lindquist Architects PS, of Spokane Valley, is the architect on both projects.

Clausen says each hotel will have about 30 employees.

Sterling Hospitality currently operates 11 properties with a total of 1,200 guest rooms in six Western states. Its Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-area properties include the Holiday Inn Express franchises in Coeur d'Alene, Spokane, and Spokane Valley and the Quality Inn Spokane Valley Suites.

Sterling's Spokane-area hotels are showing strong revenue despite the recession, Clausen says.

"At our Valley Holiday Inn Express, revenue in the first quarter of the year was above the first quarter of 2008 by 9 percent," he says, adding that revenue at the Quality Inn Valley Suites is down 3 percent for the first quarter of 2009 compared with the year-earlier quarter.

"Our Northwest properties in general are doing well," he says. "Revenue at some of our other properties, like in Las Vegas, is down 35 to 40 percent."

SpringHill Suites by Marriott targets young business and leisure travelers who Clausen says are underserved. Two-room suites at SpringHill facilities are up to 25 percent larger than standard hotel rooms, he says.

Sterling and kVc have their administrative offices in about 1,500 square feet of space in the basement of the Quality Inn, at 8923 E. Mission. The two companies have a total of 320 employees, and annual revenue of about $28 million.