DATE: Friday, October 10, 1997              TAG: 9710100687

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: COROLLA                           LENGTH:  115 lines

CHAIN HOTEL PROPOSED FOR COROLLA AREA CONSTRUCTION ON UPSCALE LODGING COULD BEGIN AS EARLY AS DECEMBER

The first hotel chain north of Kitty Hawk may be receiving guests by next summer, if a site plan being submitted to Currituck County today moves successfully through the planning process.

The 80-unit, three-story hotel will be constructed on a 4.5-acre parcel within the Corolla Light subdivision starting in December, said Ben Cahoon, a Nags Head architect who designed the plan.

Cahoon and numerous other sources say the hotel will be a Clarion, an upscale chain owned by Choice Hotels International of Silver Spring, Md.

``While we're all saying Clarion, that in fact is not 100 percent yet, as I understand it,'' Cahoon said Thursday.

Dorothy D. Cooper, a representative for Choice Hotels, said she could not confirm that anyone is interested in building a Clarion in Corolla. The specific hotel and the Richmond developer bankrolling the $3 million construction do not have to become public information until shortly before building begins, Cahoon said.

Choice Hotels International is one of the largest franchise companies in the world, operating more than 4,000 hotels, inns, suites and resorts in 33 countries, Cooper said. In addition to Clarion, the company also franchises the Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Econo Lodge, Sleep Inn, Rodeway Inn and MainStay Suites.

Clarion rooms range from about $85 to $150 a night, Cooper said. The company bills the hotel as``full-service,'' and has recently introduced special services for business travelers.

Plans for the facility are being submitted just days after Dare County approved a reciprocal arrangement with Carolina Water Service Inc. of North Carolina to provide water to each other in an emergency. But officials say the two are not related.

Carolina Water runs the water system at Corolla Light, Ocean Sands, Monteray Shores and Buck Island. The company plans to link all six private water systems on the Currituck Outer Banks and eventually hook onto the Dare system at the county line near Duck.

``I had no idea,'' Dare County Commissioner Douglas Langford said Thursday about the hotel plans. ``I had no knowledge of this whatsoever.''

Addressing suggestions by some Republicans and others that Dare Democrats approved the Carolina Water contract to help developers on the Currituck Outer Banks, Langford said: ``This is not about politics. This is about what's best for Dare County.

``If this was kind of a grand scheme, there's no way that this hotel would be announced at this time. Talk about bad timing.''

Doug Brindley, owner of Brindley & Brindley Real Estate in Corolla, said a hotel in Corolla Light was planned when the subdivision was developed in 1985. Corolla Light is owned by Outer Banks Ventures, a corporation owned by Doug Brindley's father, Richard.

``It's merely a further completion of the original plan. A resort destination like Corolla Light has to have a proper balance'' of homes, shops and accommodations, Doug Brindley said.

But some of the owners of the approximately 250 homes in Corolla Light, located about a mile south of Currituck Beach Lighthouse, are not pleased, Brindley said.

``People are mad about this,'' he said. ``They think it's going to be unattractive. But it's going to be very attractive. This hotel will attract a different type of person to Corolla. It's a nice, solid mix to the community.''

The hotel at Corolla Light will be ``pretty traditional in appearance,'' Cahoon said. ``Not unlike one of the older hunt clubs . . . not as elaborate, certainly, but it will have some of the characteristics.''

It will be wood-sided with a sloped roof and trimmed windows, rather than aluminum, Cahoon said. The property, which is still in contract and has not yet closed, will be heavily screened with landscaping. Most of the rooms will be suites, some with a living space adjoining the bedroom.

``The market there is for small families, or couples traveling together who don't want to take a house for a full week,'' Cahoon said.

Cahoon also said there is ``serious talk'' about constructing a restaurant and retail shops adjacent to the hotel on the same parcel.

Water needs for the hotel were allocated years ago when Corolla Light was planned, Cahoon said. A separate shallow irrigation well would be used for landscaping.

The architect doesn't anticipate any delays in the approval process, he said.

``I don't foresee any problems,'' he said. ``If we have met all site rules we have on the books, it would difficult to say no.''

John Mulvey, economic planner for Currituck County, said three other subdivisions on the Currituck Outer Banks also are pre-approved to include hotels: Pine Island, the Currituck Club and Ocean Sands. So far, only one has been proposed at Ocean Sands, but other than an application for a sign permit, no plans have been submitted to the county, he said.

Scott Shepard, a Kitty Hawk developer, said he plans to build a ``town'' called Primrose Beach on 80 acres within Ocean Sands that will include 230 single-family homes, an undetermined number of condominiums and a 100-room inn similar to the Sanderling Inn. Construction is targeted to begin in spring of 1998, he said.

In information that Shepard has distributed, the development is characterized as a ``community inspired by a vision of life lived in harmony with nature and community.'' Primrose Beach will include rose trellises and tree-lined streets with pedestrian paths, plazas and gardens, dune walks, tennis courts and swimming pools. Houses, which will start at $250,000, will range from cottages with wrap-around porches to stately, seven-story oceanview homes.

Mulvey said no one should be surprised that building is continuing at a healthy pace in Corolla, although build-out is still at least 10 to 25 years away.

``The big picture is that all this was already decided some time ago,'' he said. ``The plans are coming together as they originally were planned. Nothing has changed in Corolla.''

Also in the planning stages is a mid-county bridge that would send traffic to N.C. Route 12 near Corolla. ``The bridge certainly will help development in Corolla, but it will be on the lines of the planned development that is already in place,'' Mulvey said.

And Mulvey said he is not aware of any urgency from anyone in particular to build up the Currituck Outer Banks.

``It's a combined thing. It is pushing toward development,'' he said. ``It's not a developer driving it, nor is the county driving it.

``The county certainly gains a tax base. We know a large percentage of our Currituck tax base comes from rental, and Currituck appreciates this. It is our golden egg. . . . They do look at Corolla as premier beach.''

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