New hotel will double tourist rooms in Tuba

By the end of April, there will be twice as many tourist rooms in Tuba City, courtesy of the Hopi village of Moenkopi.

The Moenkopi Legacy Inn and Suites will hold its grand opening April 27, after winning an industry award for the Arizona construction project that faced the most challenges.

Most of the hurdles, according to CEO Dan Honahni of Moenkopi Developers Corp., were political.

"To build this motel we had to deal with local governments, a state government, tribal governments and even one international government," Honahni said. "First the Chinese held up our marble. Then the Navajos held up our utilities - for nearly a year."

Moenkopi is adjacent to Tuba City, so it was logical to ask Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to supply the gas and electric, Honahni explained.

He hadn't anticipated that some residents of Tuba City would object to NTUA running wires and gas lines across the highway to the Hopis.

If the local politics weren't thorny enough, there was a miscommunication with Honahni's own village.

"The day we turned the water on was the day Moenkopi decided to drain the water tank and clean it," Honahni explained. "We burned out our pumps."

Anyway, the glitches have been worked out and the beautiful new 100-room motel and conference center will open its doors next month, just three months later than scheduled.

It's the third phase of a five-phase project that currently includes a sewage treatment plant, the Tuuvi Travel Center and the Legacy Inn.

Next up: a Denny's restaurant, set to open within the next four months, and after that work will start on an office and apartment complex southeast of the motel.

Architect Bill Jarrett of South Lyon, Mich., took his inspiration from the Hopi villages for the three-story structure.

According to Honahni, the Legacy got its name because its roots are in an old Hopi prophecy he first heard the elders talk about when he was about 17.

According to the prophecy, the people and area around Moenkopi are supposed to bring wealth and progress to the Hopi Tribe and all the people of the region.

To honor the ancestors' vision, the Legacy is awash in Hopi symbolism. Above the registration desk, you'll see a Hopi word meaning "guest house."

The three meeting rooms, with a combined capacity of 220 people, are identified by a Hopi phrase meaning "planning place."

The custom carpeting incorporates a variety of Hopi symbols, and the motel's logo - a Hopi man sprinkling corn meal outside a kiva - is beautifully rendered in stained glass in the lobby.

Look through the swimming pool's self-cleaning salt water (it produces its own chlorine) and you'll see a turtle, a beloved character in Hopi stories.

That's courtesy of the contractor, Brycon.

"It seemed like the more they learned, the more they wanted to do for us," said Randy Wolff, who will morph from construction coordinator to general manager on opening day.

"They fell in love with this project. They gave us all kinds of things," he said.

The motel will also reflect the Hopi philosophy of caring for the environment, with on-demand hot water and individual heating units in each room to avoid heating rooms that are not in use.

While prices have not been firmed up, rooms will be affordable, probably around $89 and up, Wolff said. The 14 basic suites and two luxury suites will cost considerably more.

"We want the people who want that kind of experience to be able to find it here," Wolff said.

Honahni admitted economic conditions may be bad for a $13.5 million project, especially since revenues from the Tuuvi Travel Center have been disappointing, but the corporation risked losing some of the mix of public and private financing it had cobbled together if it backed out, he explained.

Besides, he believes in the prophecy. And there are signs the local economy, at least, is turning around.

"Last month proceeds at the Tuuvi Travel Center were up 25 percent over the previous month," he said.

If the motel had opened on time, it would be 75 percent full by now, he added.

"We had to turn away several receptions and events," he said.

One event that was not turned away was a reception for a soldier who is scheduled to leave for Afghanistan the day after his wedding.

"Not all the rooms will have hot water," Wolff said. "We may have to put some people up at the Quality Inn. But we're not going to let him down."