The region’s first Staybridge Suites hotel opened in Clarence earlier this week.

The three story, 100,000-square-foot hotel features 98 suites, a putting green, indoor pool, fire pit, barbecue grill, meeting spaces and a basketball court.

The hotel, which replaced the deteriorating, decades old Sheridan Court motel at Sheridan Drive and Transit Road, is the latest area investment for Erie, Pa.-based Scott Enterprises. The development firm, which operates 23 properties in Northwest Pennsylvania including Erie’s Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park Resort, opened the region’s first Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant on Transit last year.

Nick Scott Jr., vice president of Scott Enterprises, said the company plans to build additional hotels and restaurants in the Buffalo area in the years to come, but would not elaborate further.

“We see Buffalo as a resurging market with lots of opportunity,” Scott said.

He said the company was looking to expand past its Pennsylvania roots.

“Buffalo was a natural fit for us,” he said.

This week’s opening will be followed by a second Staybridge Suites, to open off of Ridge Road in West Seneca next month. That Staybridge is being built by a different developer, Scott said.

The total cost of the Clarence project was about $13 million, Scott said. Dave Hartzell, chairman of the Clarence Industrial Development Agency, said the hotel will receive sales tax abatement on all carpets, furniture, lighting and fixtures purchased after the hotel filed its IDA form.

Hartzell said the old Sheridan Court Motel “had seen its better days” when east-west travelers on Route 5 were looking for a place to stay for the night. Only a couple of those motels remain in the town, he said.

Scott Enterprises had owned the land for the last several years. Paul Leroux, director of the firm’s hotel operations, said the firm picked Staybridge, an extended-stay hotel, because of the demand for a long-term lodging option in the area. Short-term and one-night stays are also available.

Scott Enterprises chose the spot because of its proximity to office parks off of Sheridan drive, banquet halls and retail areas on Transit, the Thruway and the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Scott Enterprises was part of a larger investment group that drew up plans to buy the beleaguered Statler Towers in downtown Buffalo last fall. The group backed out of its proposal, but Scott said his company would still like to play a role in the flagship hotel’s future.

Staybridge, founded in 1997, operates 157 hotels worldwide, as part of the InterContinental Hotels group, which also owns Holiday Inn.