THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701220121
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER C. O'DONNELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 30 lines
Soon, Chesapeake will have 132 extra rooms to accommodate travelers and businessmen and women. Suburban Lodges of America, a national hotel chain, is building on a new site in Greenbrier near Military Highway.
The company, which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange, has 41 locations in nine states. Twenty-four of those locations are now operating and 17 are under construction.
Suburban Lodge is an extended stay hotel offering standard and deluxe rooms. Rooms are rented either on a weekly or nightly basis and each room is fitted with a kitchenette and a dataport for fax or laptop computer capabilities.
The Chesapeake building is a three-story exterior corridor hotel. Dan Berman, vice-president of Suburban Lodges of America, said the location is expected to attract business travelers who currently might have a difficult time finding a room in Chesapeake.
``We felt the area was underserved,'' said Berman who added that the Chesapeake market looked positive in terms of population and employment.
Berman said the Chesapeake location will be up and running in February and will initially employ about 10 workers.
Suburban Lodge has two other Hampton Roads locations under construction in Virginia Beach and Newport News. The Atlanta-based company expects to have 65 locations in 13 states by the end of the year.