DATE: Friday, June 27, 1997                 TAG: 9706270700

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   37 lines

MANAGEMENT FIRM PURCHASES BEACH HOTEL AN AFFILIATE OF THE FIRM PLANS TO DEVELOP 50 MORE LUXURY SUITES ON LAND NEXT DOOR.

Professional Hospitality Resources Inc., a Virginia Beach-based management and marketing firm, has purchased the Tradewinds Resort Hotel on the Oceanfront.

The price for the 54-room hotel at 16th Street and Atlantic Avenue was not disclosed by the company, which manages and owns portions of eight other Virginia Beach Hotels.

The Tradewinds was sold by Virginia Beach Planning Commission chairman Robert H. Vakos, who still owns the Colonial Inn on Atlantic Avenue. Vakos was unavailable for comment.

Gold Key Resorts, an affiliate of Professional Hospitality Resources, plans to develop 50 additional luxury suites on land adjacent to the Tradewinds, according to Lynn Polizos of the Meridian Group, a public relations company hired by the new owners.

The Tradewinds, a 25-year-old, six-story hotel, was one of about two dozen Oceanfront hotels in danger of missing a March 1 deadline set by state law for installing a sprinkler system. The deadline, for hotels taller than three stories, was extended to Sept. 1, and Tradewinds has completed the work, Polizos said.

In another recent move by Professional Hospitality Resources, the company received a contract to manage the Turtle Cay Resort Hotel in Virginia Beach. The $15 million condominium project is being developed by Gold Key at 6th Street and Atlantic Avenue on a vacant lot now used for parking.

Professional Hospitality Resources manages and owns portions of the Comfort Inn Oceanfront, Comfort Inn Lynnhaven, Dolphin Inn, Clarion Resort and Conference Center, Ramada Inn on the Beach, Best Western and Beach Quarters Inn.

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