The Budget Line the Board Set in February 2025
The Indianapolis Airport Authority board voted in February 2025 to approve the hotel project and its contracts. The board set the project budget at $205.8 million and ratified the project for bond funding.
The authority puts four years of financial analysis ahead of that vote, then a full design pass to a detailed budget to design, build, inspect, furnish and operate the hotel. IBJ reported the 21 February 2025 vote as unanimous and put the total budget at $205.9 million including a $10 million reserve fund. The authority's own releases carry $205.8 million. The authority told IBJ it revived consideration of a terminal hotel after a 2022 feasibility study.
Three Funding Lines and the Reserve Behind Them
The authority funds the project through airport general revenue bonds, Marriott key money and an airport equity investment. Its releases state that no tax dollars are used.
IBJ reported that the authority plans to pay for most of the project through general airport revenue bonds, that the bonds are repaid over 40 years, or over 30 years with a single balloon payment, and that at least $64 million comes from airport financial reserves to cover upfront costs and a construction contingency.
Mirror Indy reported in March 2024 that beginning construction would require $40 million of the authority's $126 million in cash reserves, and that project estimates put the recoup at 28 years.
IBJ reported in February 2025 that the authority expected $277 million in total cash on hand, including $82.5 million in unrestricted cash, after allocating funds for the project.
The Franchise Amendment That Kept the Bonds Tax-Exempt
The board approved a franchise agreement with Marriott in September 2023 for the hotel to carry the Westin brand. IBJ reported that the agreement gives the authority the right to terminate the deal if it cannot obtain adequate financing to construct the hotel.
Among the contract amendments the board approved in February 2025, IBJ reported an update to the franchise agreement that prevents the hotel from being operated privately. The project needed that amendment to receive tax-exempt bonds.
The Guaranteed Maximum Price and the Firms Behind It
Shiel Sexton Company Inc., the construction manager, set a guaranteed maximum price of $155 million, a figure IBJ reported could change with the cost of materials and labour availability.
The programme went through a cost reduction before that price was fixed. Mirror Indy reported in March 2024 that the board ordered a redesign of the initial plans for the hotel on the west side of the airport garage. The redesign removed a pool, a third-floor garage passageway priced at $10 million, a $1 million water feature, an $825,000 cistern and $600,000 of wooden canopy beams. The same report put the reduction at $57 million, from $262 million to $205 million, and recorded amended pre-construction contracts of up to $4.13 million to CSO Architects and up to $1.14 million to Shiel Sexton.
The authority's topping-out release reports more than 100 Indiana companies on the project and local trade and design team participation exceeding $150 million. More than 1,500 construction professionals will have worked the site at an average of 120 crew members daily, and the completed hotel carries roughly 140 permanent jobs.
The Credit the Authority Brings to the Issue
Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings each assign the authority a stable outlook, with ratings ranging from A to A+, per the authority's releases.
Board treasurer Robert Thomson reported in September 2025 that the authority had increased its reserves by 88 percent and lowered its total debt by $127 million over 10 years.
The same account records the authority ending its complex loan agreements and lifting the money it generates annually for future capital investments, from $5.5 million a decade earlier.
The Delivery Schedule the Authority Is Working To
The sequence runs from the February 2025 board vote to a groundbreaking on 12 June 2025, where approximately 200 guests received ceremonial vials of dirt. The first concrete pour for the ground floor followed on 18 September 2025. The topping-out ceremony came on 14 May 2026, when the highest beam went into place and the structure reached its full height.
The completion month differs across the authority's own pages. The June 2025 and September 2025 releases anticipate completion in December 2027. The May 2026 release puts the opening at the end of 2027, and Shiel Sexton chief operations officer Matt Barnes describes the airport as on track to open in late 2027. IBJ's September 2026 report records the building 60 percent complete with $120 million spent of the nearly $206 million budget, and dates the opening to the following autumn.
The Rooms and the Dates They Sell From
The hotel carries 253 rooms over seven storeys, with rooms of about 375 square feet, approximately 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a full-service restaurant serving three meals a day, a fitness center, a seventh-floor bar and lounge, and a pedestrian passage through the hotel to the airport garage.
The authority's releases carry no room rate, no occupancy figure, no average daily rate, no revenue per available room and no room-night forecast. They carry no share of the 253 rooms held for crew or airline contracts, and no valet price.
Two modelling inputs reached the public through IBJ's reporting of the February 2025 board meeting. IBJ put the starting rate at about $245 per night and the occupancy goal at 76 percent annually from the third year. IBJ's September 2026 report also records an airline-fee constraint on a revenue shortfall.
The operator's terms reached the record with the board vote. Wischermann Partners holds an initial five-year management term with two five-year renewals, a base fee of 3 percent of total revenue, and an incentive fee of 1 percent of total revenue contingent on the highest Marriott guest satisfaction rating and revenue ahead of expectations by at least 5 percent, per IBJ.
No published page carries the date the rooms go on sale. The three release dates set the window: December 2027 on the June and September 2025 releases, the end of 2027 on the May 2026 release, and the following autumn in IBJ's September 2026 report. A booking calendar built on the December date moves by up to a quarter against the later two.
One programme item stays unresolved on the public record. The March 2024 redesign removed the third-floor garage passageway at a saving of $10 million. IBJ's February 2025 account and the authority's own releases both describe a passage linking the hotel to the airport's parking garage. No published document states the final design or cost of that link.