[A.G.]

NOT a Holiday Inn. But a Hilton.
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 4841&path=

Wards Road could get Hilton

Bethany Fuller
bfuller@newsadvance.com
August 24, 2006

A Lynchburg developer is planning to open a new hotel and conference center on Wards Road - the third hotel now in the planning stages for that area.

Norris Blanks, who is working on various projects in the Lynchburg area, said Thursday he and two partners will break ground on a Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center located across the street from Wards Crossing in September.

Ward’s Road Corridor, a corporation operated by Blanks, Bruce Johnson and Scott McAllister of Helm Builders in Apex, N.C., has been developing this project for the past two years.

Blanks said they are hoping to complete the 126-room hotel by fall 2007. He said the hotel would feature a 4,000-square-foot conference center.

“We think there is a tremendous amount of business there,” Blanks said. “Hopefully, we are going to be able to capture some of that market.”

Blanks said with all of the college campuses and the businesses headquartered in the city, Lynchburg needs an “upper-end” hotel.

“I think these are critical elements,” Blanks said.

The hotel will feature an in-house restaurant with a full breakfast menu. Blanks said the site also will have an outlet for another restaurant next door. Developers are hoping to find a restaurant chain similar in quality to the hotel.

He said Hilton Hospitality Inc. had to approve the project before they proceeded.

“I think they are pleased to have their flag represented in Lynchburg,” he said.

This will be the second Hilton hotel to open in Lynchburg. The first one is now the Kirkley Hotel and Conference Center on Candlers Mountain Road.

Blanks and Johnson are also working to develop the Krise Building in downtown Lynchburg, which houses Bowen Jewelry.

The hotel project is being partially financed by a $12 million loan from First American Realty Associates in Texas.

Cameron J. Larkin, senior vice president of business development for First American Realty, said one reason why his company provided the developers with the loan is because they received a letter of support from the Falwells.

“It really is a terrific project,” Larkin said. “The location they bought is a sweet spot.”

The Rev. Jerry Falwell said he was pleased that more hotels were opening around Liberty University.

“The reason why we are in support of hotels in the radius of the university is for the benefit of our students,” he said.

It also helps with special events on campus like Winterfest, which draws 6,000 to 7,000 young adults to LU each New Year’s.

The hotel would be the third new one for the Wards Road corridor. A Danville-based hotel management group announced earlier this year it would build a Springhill Suites by Marriott and another hotel across the street from Lynchburg Regional Airport.

Larkin said his company, along with a group of assessors, calculated the hotel would have a 75 percent occupancy rate within five years.

“These projections have to be reinforced by the appraisal that was done,” he said.

Lynchburg’s overall hotel occupancy rate for 2005 was 51.6 percent.

Brian Knopp, regional sales manager for Southeast Hotel Management, which manages the Days Inn and the Wingate Inn, said Lynchburg typically fills up six weekends out of the year. Most of these weekends correlate with major events at the area colleges.

He said he wasn’t certain whether a new hotel was good for competition right now or not.

Becca Lingley, group sales manager for the Lynchburg Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the new hotel would provide the city with a wider variety.

“The more variety you provide, the more opportunity that comes,” she said. “We are definitely moving forward to becoming a more up-and-coming city, anything we can do to be on a competitive edge is good. We are going to continue to grow, I think there is always going to be a need for accommodation space.”

[LUconn]

I guess this helps the case for supporting a high-end mall. I don't see where they're talking about though. Next to Bob Evans? There's no room there.

[bigsmooth]

Maybe they are talking about the corner of wards ferry and wards in front of the wards crossing west., but is there not a little bit of space across the street from olive garden?

[ALUmnus]

Uh, the Hilton was already here and left. I guess they think they can do better this time, even though there's much more competition, and more on the way.

[Sly Fox]

Its a Hilton Garden Inn ... not a Hilton. Same company but a different line. All of these prpjects will help LU eventually compete for some events down the road. Vines Center would be an attractive venue for LU-ponsored and unattached events during breaks from school.

[El Scorcho]

They're talking about directly behind Dorm 33, on the other side of the railroad tracks. (No jokes about the view, please.) There's a little spot of land there, that a tall hotel will fit in nicely.

And for the record, I've already mentioned this was coming on the board before, but I don't think anyone noticed.

[LUconn]

Didn't they already build a pile of junk there?

[bigsmooth]

let's all give scorcho his due why not there? there is already so much traffic on this road already!

[El Scorcho]

I'm just saying (without making it completely obvious) that once in a while, I tend to have an inside tip or two on development by a certain group of folks around here. I wasn't looking for a pat on the back. I was just trying to make a point for future reference since everyone seems to be interested in this sort of thing.

And yes, there is a pile of junk there. The land it was on was for sale for about a year. It was purchased, and now there will be a hotel there.

[LUconn]

you've got to start a thread about it or else we won't notice.

[Sly Fox]

Here are some more business details:

Last updated: August 25, 2006 07:32am
Ward’s Rd. Corridor Gets Construction Financing

By Erika Morphy



LYNCHBURG, VA-Ward’s Road Corridor, LLC has received a $12-million construction loan to begin work on a 126-room Hilton Garden Inn & Conference Center here. Brokered by First American Realty in Dallas, the 80% loan-to-cost financing program is interest-only during the first half of the five-year term.

Sponsors of the project include contractor Scott McAllister of Helm Builders, LLC of Apex, NC, Norris D. Blanks of Washington, DC and Robert Bruce Johnson of Lynchburg. Once complete, the hotel will be managed by Destination Hospitality, of Virginia, LLC, owned and operated by the project sponsors and Suresh Mathur of Roebuck, SC.

Destination Hospitality also plans to develop two additional hotels in Virginia, Blanks tells GlobeSt.com. “We are looking at two locations right now and hope to decide before the end of the year.” He says the capital allocations for these two hotels, which will be in different markets, are roughly $20 million to $24 million.

Total development costs of the soon-to-be-constructed Hilton-franchised Lynchburg property will reach $15 million. It is also poised for further redevelopment as the sponsors have acquired two acres of land next to the site that Blanks says is ideal for a chain-style restaurant. “At the moment we don’t have any firm takers to develop this, but we have had two inquirers. This is the last available piece of land within this commercial corridor.” The Lynchburg market itself is undergoing significant development, Blanks continues, attracting retailers, hoteliers and new developers. “There is some $60 million of new retail development currently under way,” Blanks says. He also cites recent local news reports that Liberty University--founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell and a focal point for his ministerial activities--is planning to make 100 acres of land available for retail development.

Indeed, the market’s activity--as well as a little push from Falwell--helped the sponsors attain favorable financing terms for its construction loan, according to Cameron J. Larkin, senior vice president of Business Development, Hospitality Financing, at First American Realty.

“Five years of interest-only financing is much longer than one would typically get for a hotel,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Also, normally lenders don’t like to go above 75% of loan-to-coast. But the lender in this case loved the sponsorship and loved the market.”

There is very little hotel product in Lynchburg even though the market is undergoing substantial development, Larkin says. “Also, this property is located on the edge of Liberty University, which is doubling in size over the next few years to 20,000 students.” Larkin says Falwell wrote to the lenders describing the expected growth of the university and how it will directly impact the hotel. “Even if the university only generates 10% to 15% of what he claimed, that will still be very good business,” Larkin says.

http://www.globest.com/news/690_690/was ... 528-1.html