ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995            TAG: 9512170002
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER 

SHERATON TO BECOME CLARION INN

MARYLAND-BASED firm will spend $7.3 million to resuscitate airport hotel.

Choice Hotels International on Friday bought the Sheraton Inn Roanoke Airport and said it will spend $2 million to upgrade it to a Clarion Inn.

The Silver Spring, Md.-based company paid $5.3 million for the 14-year-old hotel, which the failing Krisch Hotels Inc. of Roanoke surrendered in bankruptcy last winter. The Roanoke Sheraton badly needs repair, but has been making a small profit, Choice Hotels said.

The hotel has been held for the past nine months by an Atlanta partnership that buys distressed properties and holds them until a permanent owner is found.

The new owners plan during the next six months to renovate the Sheraton's lobby and other public areas and all 148 guest rooms. A quarter of the rooms also will get large desks, irons, hair dryers and other conveniences intended to lure business travelers. The name will change by the end of March, the company said.

To better accommodate meetings and events, the owners will install an unconventional chef-less kitchen to prepare group meals with an eye toward greater efficiency.

The kitchen concept, exclusive to Choice Hotels, involves having outside contractors deliver ready-to-cook banquet food to the hotel for final preparation. The system eliminates the need for a costly full-service kitchen and crew and has the flexibility needed for feeding groups. A scaled-down staff of kitchen "technicians" arrange the food on plates and put the plates on wheeled racks that roll easily between refrigerators and large convection ovens.

"If a group decides they're going to be half an hour late, you don't have an executive chef pulling his hair out," said Rich Roberts, spokesman for Choice Hotels.

The Sheraton will keep its regular kitchen and restaurant. But Choice Hotels plans to replace the restaurant later with a food court offering such name-brand items as Pizzeria Uno slices and pies, Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs and Sarks coffee.

The revamped Sheraton will be one of about 60 hotels in 19 states owned by Choice.

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