Hotel targets business traveler

An 85-room Hampton Inn and Suites hotel is expected to be open in Reno's South Meadows by late 2004.

The project next to the Reno-Tahoe Tech Center will be developed by Laxmi Hotels LLC, a company spearheaded by 26-year-old Sushil Patel of South Lake Tahoe.

Patel's company purchased about 1.5 acres for $800,000 $12.24 a square foot at Northern Nevada Corporate Center.

Dewey Struble of Colliers International represented Laxmi Hotels LLC.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for April, Patel said last week, and his company hopes to have the hotel in full operation by next year's holiday season.

The two-story building will include an atrium lobby as well as wireless internet access, he said.

Patel said he's long believed that the South Meadows area needs additional hotel rooms particularly rooms targeted toward business travelers and he's been scouting the area for more than three years.

"I've been working quite some time to acquire land," he said.

Patel's family has been involved in the lodging industry since his father began acquiring properties in the 1970s.

The family now owns five hotels.