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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992                   TAG: 9201140175
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

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ECONO LODGE NOW HOJO INN FRANCHISE

There's a new motel in Blacksburg, sort of.

A HoJo Inn now operates at 3333 S. Main St., filling the 47-room facility that had for years been an Econo Lodge.

The motel switched affiliations right before Christmas. Seaboard Savings of Virginia Beach foreclosed on the facility last June after the former owner, Young and Associaties, had gone bankrupt.

Seaboard Savings had sought to keep the motel operating as an Econo Lodge. But Choice Hotels, which operates Econo Lodges, Comfort Inns and several other hotel-motel chains, wanted the new owners to pay a new $25,000 franchise fee, said Lee Pritt, a manager at the HoJo Inn.

The bank then decided to seek a different franchise. It selected HoJo Inn because it required a lower franchise fee.

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