
DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290596

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   99 lines

"PIONEERS" PLAN 2 MORE HOTELS THE COMPANY THAT BUILT GREENBRIER'S "HOTEL ROW" EXPECTS TO COMPLETE NEW PROJECTS BY SUMMER.

Chesapeake has long been considered a bedroom community. Because of LTD Management Co. Inc., many of those bedrooms are in hotels.

The owners of LTD, Dilip R. Desai and Harry K. Thakkar, announced Tuesday that they will build two Marriott hotels in Chesapeake: a $6.9 million TownePlace Suites in Greenbrier and a $5.3 million Fairfield Suites in Western Branch.

Those are in addition to five other Chesapeake hotels LTD already manages, said Desai, company president.

The Armada/Hoffler Co. will begin construction of the 119-room TownePlace Suites and 95-room Fairfield Suites in early 1998. Work should be completed by June, he said.

LTD also manages a Comfort Inn in Norfolk and a Days Inn in Franklin, and it is building a Courtyard by Marriott in Newport News. Once the three new hotels are in operation, LTD will have annual revenue of $16 million, Desai said.

The company's economic impact is substantial. It will pay $1 million a year in Chesapeake taxes and employ 365, said Thakkar, chief financial officer.

Chesapeake Mayor William E. Ward credits LTD with building Greenbrier's ``hotel row,'' a bustling commercial corridor near the Chesapeake Conference Center off Interstate 64. ``They were the pioneers,'' Ward said.

TownePlace Suites, a new Marriott brand, is a moderately priced extended-stay hotel. One has been built in Newport News, and another has been announced for Virginia Beach. Fairfield Suites is more expensive than TownPlace Suites, but less than Courtyard.

When LTD went into business 14 years ago, most hotels were concentrated near Norfolk International Airport and Military Highway, Thakkar said.

The company bought its first hotel, a Portsmouth Quality Inn, in 1983. LTD built its first hotel, a Portsmouth Econolodge, in 1984, Desai said. The company, which later sold both hotels, began to look toward Chesapeake.

``When we moved here, people wondered what we were doing,'' Thakkar said. ``But we saw a lot of potential for growth.''

The company's first Chesapeake hotel, a Days Inn on Battlefield Boulevard, opened in 1985.

LTD's early success helped it lure Marriott International Inc. to the city, Desai said. Marriott awarded LTD its ``1997 Construction Excellence'' award, naming its Courtyard in Greenbrier the best of 27 built this year. ``We introduced the Marriott brand to Chesapeake,'' Desai said. ``When we first talked to Marriott 24 months ago, they said, `Where's Chesapeake?' We had to educate them.'' Desai said he's encouraged by LTD's average occupany rates of 73 percent. ``That's not as high as we'd like, so we've got some homework to do,'' he said.

After several years of rapid hotel-room growth, Greenbrier has reached the saturation point, Desai said. Western Branch, on the other hand, could be the city's next hot spot - especially if proposed commercial and industrial parks are successful, he said.

Greenbrier's hotel corridor has attracted other national chains, such as Extended Stay America - which opened its first hotel last year, and Suburban Lodge, Desai said.

But LTD manages more hotels in Chesapeake than any other company, said assistant economic development director Warren Harris. Its closest rival in Chesapeake is Tidewater Inn Management, which owns the Holiday Inn and the Hampton Inn in Greenbrier.

The number of hotel rooms in the city has jumped from 200 in the 1980s to nearly 2,000 today, according to Bill Lindley, general manager of the Chesapeake Conference Center. LTD is responsible for much of the increase.

``Chesapeake has clearly been identified as ground zero for hotel development,'' said David Beatty, president of CENIT Commercial Mortgage.

From 1992 to 1996, city lodging taxes increased by nearly 44 percent - from just over $634,000 to more than $911,000, according to the Commissioner of the Revenue. In comparison, hotel taxes paid to Virginia Beach grew by 22 percent, from $5.8 million to $7.2 million.

To gain approval for the Fairfield Suites in Western Branch, LTD spent $80,000 to redesign and relocate the project after the City Council rejected its proposal for a four-story, 82-room hotel on a 1.7-acre parcel on Portsmouth Boulevard, Thakkar said.

Residents had complained that the hotel would be too big and would create too much traffic. Neighbors also wanted a full-service hotel with banquet facilities.

The Western Branch market can't support a full-service hotel now, Thakkar said. But LTD worked with community members and Marriott to produce a three-story plan that includes an indoor swimming pool and 1,000-square-foot conference room. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

CHARLIE MEADS

The Virginian-Pilot

Harry K. Thakkar and Dilip R. Desai...

LTD Management Co.

Revenue: $16 million by summer 1998

Employees: 365

In addition to the $6.9 million, 119-room TownePlace Suites and a

$5.3 million, 95-room Fairfield Suites, LTD Management Co. manages:

A 90-room Hampton Inn in Western Branch.

An 88-room Days Inn, 124-room Comfort Suites, 90-room Courtyard

by Marriott, 105-room Fairfield Inn - all in Greenbrier.

A Comfort Inn in Norfolk, a Days Inn in Franklin and a Courtyard