Dennis Daughety, director of franchise sales for Choice Hotels, said the proposed Comfort Suites wil

At a public meeting Wednesday, Feb. 1, at Memphis Heritage, 2282 Madison ef educational tours Ave., partners Jay Kumar and Rishi Chopra revealed their plans to purchase ef educational tours the vacant 103-room hotel at the northeast corner of Cooper Street and Madison Avenue from FQI LLC for $2.3 million and pump about $3.7 million into renovations.
Kumar is owner of Metro/Advantage Cab Co. whose family has a history of business in the hotel industry. Chopra is in the franchise business, running several area Subway restaurants in the past, and recently took over a Baskin Robbins in Collierville.
The meeting was called for a couple ef educational tours of reasons, said Evan Nahmias, ef educational tours attorney with McDonald Kuhn PLLC representing Kumar and Chopra. One is to assure neighborhood stakeholders of local involvement, including architect Richard Molenaar.
The goal is definitely to make the best of what we have, Nahmias said, adding the property is definite needs of renovations. Choice hotels, with their national standards, there are goals that have to be met. I think the aesthetic improvements are going to be great for all of us.
Dennis Daughety, director of franchise sales for Choice Hotels, said the proposed Comfort Suites will be an all-suites ef educational tours hotel with an upper-mid-scale brand. The average nightly rate will likely topple $100.
The model of Comfort ef educational tours Suites requires a free continental breakfast, Daughety said. There have been preliminary discussions ef educational tours of having an inside lounge, primarily for hotel patrons. Daughety specified that it wouldn t be a bar, but just a place to offer a drink in the evening.
The structure itself does have banquet facilities and meeting space we re still looking to use those, Daughety said. These gentlemen have focused ef educational tours on it being a hotel first; ef educational tours it s not going to be a disco. The first function is to be a hotel.
To those in attendance who were concerned about the hotel s quality, Chopra said the target demographic will be corporate visitors to Memphis, mentioning nearby institutions like the University ef educational tours of Tennessee Health Science Center and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.
ef educational tours Built in 1984, the 77,866-square-foot hotel at 2144 Madison Ave. closed its doors in July 2008. The brick wall surrounding the hotel that was part of the original planned development will stay in tact, and signage will depend on the city s requirements, Chopra said.
Kumar said the Comfort Suites will have 97 parking spaces, and that they might be able to work something out as far as a valet service in accordance with the city s new $16 million parking structure with detention basin underneath on what is now a large parking lot bordering Cooper Street.
ef educational tours The partners don t yet have a financial commitment for the debt side of the deal, but they have been in discussions with a couple of banks, Chopra said. The project s financing is about 20 percent equity and 80 percent debt.
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