Two of the larger employers in town, the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa and the 1905 Basin Park Hotel & Spa, have staff ranging between 240 and 270.
“That is quite a way from the five employees that I started with in 1995,” Historic Hotels General Manager Jack Moyer said.
Labor shortages, linked to the lack of affordable housing, has made it difficult for local businesses to hire enough employees, particularly for the tourism season. Moyer said their properties haven’t escaped the trend, particularly with the recruitment of management or employees who need short-term stopgaps until they can find housing.
“The market fluctuates greatly with essentially no availability during the height of the tourist season,” Moyer said. “What resulted is that when we were recruiting talent from May through October, many qualified candidates chose not to move here because they could not secure suitable housing. We have long recognized the need for affordable housing for our workforce, and with the recent escalation of housing costs and subsequent rent pricing, Elise Roenigk felt compelled to invest in housing and challenged me to identify possible solutions.”
The former assisted living facility, Holly House, located near US62 behind Cup and Love and Eureka Brewery, closed in March 2022. Moyer said that Holly House, which has been renamed the Ridge, was an excellent opportunity for them to move quickly on a redevelopment strategy for one-bedroom and studio apartments as they recruit interns and identify an alternative for short-term transitional housing. Moyer said he hopes this will allow people to say “yes” to the job opportunity knowing that they will have a safe, clean and affordable place to live while they can seek a more permanent solution.
Moyer said he isn’t sure that being able to rent a home at the Ridge was a factor for any of their employees deciding to join the Crescent/Basin team, but it didn’t hurt. One woman who went to work recently for the Basin Park Hotel said she deliberately sought out working for the company because of the potential for housing. She had been in town several months without being able to find a decent place to live.
It takes time to train new employees and can be expensive and time consuming to have employee turnover. Moyer said that generally, businesses that have less employee turnover deliver better service.
In the past six months during Phases One and Two of the project, they have built seven apartments and opened a babysitting area.
“We currently offer babysitting and will be working towards certifying into a daycare,” Moyer said. “This was a real need for several team members. The cost of daycare often disqualifies single mothers from the workforce.”
They currently have seven units available at bargain rates. The apartments have been fully restored, and five more are planned. During the winter, the hotels work on repairs and upgrading. After winter work is complete, the hotels will move back to the apartments to complete the expansion and renovation.
While any number of new, clean and energy-efficient apartments is welcome, more needs to be done to make housing available for workers. Moyer said they are investigating building a tiny home community after they finish renovating the Ridge.
Eureka Springs has steep, narrow roads with street parking that blocks off one lane of traffic. Many renters and property owners with only street parking end up with parked cars getting damaged by other vehicles. The parking can also present safety hazards when entering and exiting the vehicles. The Ridge has paved, level, safe parking.
The Crescent and Basin Hotels have provided a potential template for taking existing buildings and renovating them into affordable housing for workers. The Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Development held a number of meetings in 2022 to discuss actions that could promote construction of more affordable housing in Eureka Springs to meet the needs of workers and others like retirees on fixed incomes.
Moyer said they’re just mainly going to work on services they offer for their team, but he does hope that the Eureka Springs community can remain balanced and focus on the development and needs of its workforce.