Visitors to Columbia’s antique shops, river trail and Turkey Hill Experience will no longer have to leave town to find a place to spend the night when a downtown hotel opens next year on the site of an abandoned potato chip factory.

Local business owners Don and Becky Murphy plan to construct a new, four-story, 80-room hotel that preserves the facade of the former Becker Pretzel Bakeries potato chip division building at 12. N. Second St., which has been closed since the 1960s.

The Hampton Inn by Hilton at The Chip Factory, located at the intersection of Second and Locust streets, will be within walking distance of the Susquehanna River and downtown businesses, and include amenities like a first-floor restaurant, rooftop lounge with views of the Susquehanna River, a fitness center and pet-friendly rooms.

The $22 million project is expected to take a little more than a year to construct. A groundbreaking ceremony is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday at the site. Next month, crews will begin shoring up the building’s historic facade for partial demolition of the factory.

The Murphys are known for Columbia businesses like Hinkle’s Restaurant, Murphy’s Mercantile and Burning Bridge Antiques, and renovating other downtown buildings that now house businesses including a brewery, a bike shop and a wedding dress shop.

But as Don Murphy told LNP | LancasterOnline last week, a hotel in the borough has long been a goal because they knew from their other ventures that there were enough visitors to downtown to support such a facility.

“If we get people into our downtown, they tell their friends, they come back. We just need to get them here, and this will do that,” he said.

First proposed in 2018

Originally proposed by the Murphys in 2018, the project looked as if it would begin construction in 2020 until the pandemic derailed the financing.

They continued to work on the plan, enlisting State College-based Shaner Hotel Group, which led them to partner with Hampton’s owner, Hilton Hotels, and ultimately to obtain financing for the project.

Hilton allowed them to keep many of the elements of the original concept. And the project benefits from Hampton Inn’s name recognition and extensive network of rewards club members.

Don Murphy said he’s confident the hotel will be popular with people visiting the borough for festivals, outdoor recreation and attractions, and to large businesses like GSK and Donegal Insurance Group, which are both located about 5 miles from the hotel. He also believes hotel guests will venture into local stores and establishments like the borough’s two breweries and distillery.

In a news release, Mayor Leo Lutz was quoted as saying the Murphys are responsible for making progress happen, no matter what the challenges, as evidenced by the journey they took toward construction of the hotel.

“This hotel is exactly what Columbia needs to continue growing as a destination,” Lutz was quoted as saying.

Borough, school district and county officials also approved a tax abatement that keeps the hotel’s property taxes at their current levels until 2028. Don Murphy credited the borough for being business friendly, and the Lancaster County Housing and Redevelopment Authorities’ assistance in obtaining $1.5 million in state grants for site work, without which he said it would have been difficult if not impossible to redevelop the abandoned factory.

Historic preservation brings increased cost, Don Murphy said, but they remain committed to it because they know the value of history and nostalgia to their businesses and Columbia Borough.

“We want to see it thrive. We want to see it unboarded. We’ve done a lot of that, but there's a lot to do, and I think this is going to be a huge turning point,” he said.