Fort Lee hotel dampens expansion enthusiasm

[unhappycamper]

Fort Lee hotel dampens expansion enthusiasm
By Steve Szkotak - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jan 3, 2010 8:30:00 EST

PETERSBURG, Va. — The expansion of Fort Lee has created a building boom on the base and generated elation among local officials eager to share in the military’s $1.4 billion investment in a recessionary economy.

Then the Army announced plans to build what is believed to be the largest hotel in Virginia — a $120 million, 1,000-room military lodging center — and some of the happy buzz turned to talk of betrayal.

The criticism is coming from developers and small business people who have invested more than $120 million to build 1,200 hotel rooms for the thousands of military students expected to report to Fort Lee. Now they wonder if those rooms will ever be filled.

“They were told four years ago build, build, build,” said Linas J. Kojelis, who leads the Greater Tri-Cities Hospitality Coalition, representing 170 hotel owners and small businesses. When the military hotel was announced late last summer, “Frankly we were all shocked. Nobody had heard of this thing.”

The Army and others involved in the expansion contend they never specifically encouraged hoteliers to build so many rooms and add that their projections show the private hospitality sector will still share in the expansion, though not to its inflated expectations.


Restr of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_fort_lee_hotel_010210/