ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Two motels will be built in Dublin next to the 100-room Comfort Inn, providing a total of 280 rooms for visitors to Pulaski County when construction is complete.
Work will start on a 100-room, two-story Hampton Inns motel in April. "We expect to be open by October," said Randy P. Smith, president of Humphrey Hotels Inc.
Next, an 80-room Microtel will be built on the same five-acre site, close enough to the Comfort Inn to share driveways and other facilities, Smith said. But they will be managed separately.
Humphrey Hospitality Trust of Silver Spring, Md., will own all three motels. Humphrey Hospitality Management will operate them.
The two new motels will bring about 75 new full-time jobs to the area, and Smith predicted the concentration of rooms near the Dublin exit from Interstate 81 would bring other enterprises
"Hopefully, that will also spur some restaurants down there in that same area," he said. "We think this should pick up the entire intersection," he said.
Dublin Town Manager Gary Elander said the projects will ease the shortage of motel rooms in the county. "We can use a full-service restaurant or two," he added.
"That's a good sign," agreed Joe Sheffey, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors.
"Tourism is our business," said John Stone, manager of the Comfort Inn and operations director for other motels in several states. "It's obvious that we think - well, we know - that tourism traffic is going to be a main contributor to our success here."
Stone resigned last month from Pulaski Town Council, halfway through his four-year term, because of his increased business responsibilities. He said projects such as extending the New River Trail into Pulaski and improving the Draper Mountain Overlook will help draw tourists into Pulaski County, and these facilities will provide more rooms for them to stay longer.
Stone said the new Hampton Inns would be a state-of-the-art motel with a modern meeting room, electronic door locks and hallway room entrances.
"All Southwest Virginia is kind of waking up to tourism, and one of the big needs is rooms," said Barry Matherly, economic development director for the town of Pulaski. He said tourist spending doubles when the traveler stays in an area overnight, and that area industries have needed more rooms for visiting suppliers and others. "I think it's a very positive step for tourism and for industry."
Both motels will be built on five acres next to the Comfort Inn, recently purchased by the Humphrey Companies. They will be close enough to one another to share some driveway access with the Comfort Inn.
Construction is supposed to start on the Microtel in September. "We fully expect to use a local construction company," Smith said. "We haven't completed negotiations yet."
The Hampton Inns construction-cost estimate is $3.85 million and, for the Microtel, about $2.9 million. The nearest Hampton Inns motel is in Christiansburg.
Smith said his company chose Pulaski County for the motels because of the quality of its work force and progress in economic development.
"You can find pieces of ground anywhere in the United States," he said, but not with the kind of people who live here. "We've seen the growth in the area. It's very impressive, and we think there's the need for this additional hotel space."
Humphrey Hospitality Trust will establish a line of credit with Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Bank of Maryland to develop the motels in Dublin and another in Dover, Del. Humphrey Hospitality Management operates seven Comfort Inn motels and a Days Inn and Best Western in Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Smith said the new motels planned for Dublin will serve as a training ground for managers interested in moving to other Humphrey motels. "This is the only hotel site from our company that we've identified as generating managers," he said.
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