Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9509010053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The project is expected to cost $5.9 million, including the purchase price of its two-acre site at Braeburn Drive and Virginia 419, said Macfarlane, president of Eastern Motor Inns Inc.
Although the announcement was made jointly with William Downey, president of Lewis-Gale Hospital, Macfarlane said the venture is not being underwritten by Lewis-Gale or its parent company, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. of Nashville.
The hotel expects to get a substantial portion of its business from out-of-town hospital patients and their families, however, and that has been factored into its design, he said.
The structure will include 38 two-room suites with kitchen facilities. It is aimed at the family members of out-of-town patients and at patients who need to stay close to the hospital and their doctors after the time that their insurance companies allow for a hospital stay.
Rates are expected to range from $58 to $75 a night, Macfarlane said.
The hotel, which is expected to open by next September, will be connected by a covered walkway to the hospital's parking lot. The project also will feature an outdoor swimming pool and a sixth-floor fitness center for guests and the medical staff at Lewis-Gale.
The Hampton Inn/Lewis-Gale project is a major one for Eastern, Macfarlane said.
"In the past, we've been known for motels or motor inns," he said.
Macfarlane and his wife, Ann, who is a principal partner in Eastern Motor Inns and who oversees interior design for the company, operate 15 motels and hotels, including several in the Roanoke Valley.
The Eastern project is much smaller than, but similar to, a hotel proposed on Lewis-Gale property in 1989. Plans then were for a $24 million, all-suite, eight-story hotel with parking garage to be managed by Radisson Hotels International. As late as 1992, the developer of that project said the hotel still was planned, but had been scaled back and delayed because of a depressed hotel market.
A groundbreaking for the Hampton Inn is scheduled for Tuesday, but site preparation probably won't begin for a couple of weeks, said project contractor Bob Monroe of Greensboro, N.C. The hotel will employ from 35 to 50 workers, Macfarlane said.
by CNB