THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511190083
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Talk of the Town
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Marriott Corp. has completed a $6.5 million renovation of the 295-room hotel it bought last year at Williamsburg.
While dozens of the 351 hotels and motels in Hampton Roads are renovated every year, the Williamsburg Marriott merits special mention, not only because it was fixed up, but because of Colonial Williamsburg.
In recent years the venerable Peninsula village has tried to attract more tourists. It was as if everyone who wanted to had toured the capital of colonial Virginia. If tourist interest has waned, however, it hasn't disturbed Marriott.
``We really think there's an opportunity to bring in people who have never experienced Williamsburg,'' said Hugh Stephens, the Williamsburg Marriott marketing director. ``We think it's a unique location, particularly in the spring and fall.''
Marriott plans to market the hotel throughout the nation for small conventions and corporate training groups as well state and regional associations.
``In order to compete . . . , we had to renovate,'' Stephens said. ``It is a lot of money to spend, but it obviously required some extensive renovations. We did extensive renovations of the public areas, focusing in on the lobby. We also did the guest rooms, but the lobby before we took over had a corrugated steel cieling with exposed pipes. It was an airplane hangar-type environment.''
Air express: Federal Express Corp. and the Air Line Pilots Association are set to return to the table Monday, the first talks since an impasse was declared four weeks ago and perhaps the last chance the two sides have to avoid a Christmas-season work stoppage.
The two sides are in a 30-day cooling-off period, but pilots have vowed to take selective job actions short of a general strike once that period expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Motorola update: James River Parkway Associates wants to build a $255 million toll road around Richmond. ``This road has the potential to be Richmond's high-tech corridor,'' said Parkway Associates attorney Steve Pearson.
The new road would extend Route 288 from the Powhite Parkway in Chesterfield County to Interstate 64 in Goochland County, where Motorola is building a $3 billion computer chip plant.
Considering the State Department of Transportation would require 15 years to raise $255 million, a private venture, Parkway Associates, proposed the toll road. While Powhatan County supervisors support Route 288's extension, they stipulated one condition: Don't build it as a toll road.
Recession Watch: Comerica Bank in Michigan compiles the Recession Watch Index to forecast the likelihood of a national recession occurring within the next 12 months.
The index inched up to a 49 percent probability level in October from a 48 percent reading in September. The index is a weighted average of three leading indicators: spread in the yield curve, adjusted bank reserve growth, and the U.S. Commerce Department's Index of Leading Indicators. by CNB