May 15—CUMBERLAND—A ground breaking ceremony was held to mark the beginning of the construction phase for a new $8.5 million Holiday Inn Express in LaVale between Wesley Avenue and National Highway.
The site for the new hotel can also be described as being located beside D’Atri’s Restaurant, a landmark in LaVale since 1976.
The Allegany County commissioners, Del. Kevin Kelly, officials from banking, business and commercial building converged on the site Wednesday to participate in the ground breaking ceremony.
“I’ve always wanted to bring an upper scale hotel here,” said Umesh Patel, owner of the new Holiday Inn Express.
The new hotel will have 60 rooms and 27 suites for a total of 87 rooms. It will also include a pool, fitness center, meeting and board rooms and a great room.
Patel’s journey from India to England, and then the U.S. in 1979, is the classic immigrant’s story. “I had $100 in my pocket when I came here. I started in Kingwood, W.Va. in 1981. I have always loved the area,” said Patel. Patel is also the owner of six businesses in the region, including the Super 8 motel on National Highway and the Days Inn and Suites in Frostburg. “It’s spectacular for the area. Between the county and local government and the business community, a lot of people came together to make it happen,” said Kelly. The road to bring the new Holiday Inn Express has been a long one. Patel has been trying to put the deal together since 2008.
“We were two signatures away from closing the deal in 2008,” said Patel.
Each time the deal didn’t materialize, Patel, his attorney Bill Trozzo, and officials Mark Malec and Sandy Mehalko of Frostburg State University’s Small Business and Technical Development Center continued to work on making the deal happen.
“Umesh is the hardest working guy I know,” said Malec.
The new Holiday Inn Express will employ 35 to 40 people upon opening, according to Malec.
“It’s very exciting. We want to bring business and tourism into the area. People will now have more places to stay,” said Mehalko.
The new hotel will not sit along National Highway, but will be set back along Wesley Avenue.
The addition of the Holiday Inn Express is part of a flurry of commercial activity that has taken place in the area of Campground Road, Wesley Avenue and National Highway. CVS opened a new store at 1202 National Highway recently with Arby’s, the former occupant of that location, relocating beside it.
Negotiations are also now taking place to bring a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Restaurant to the tract behind CVS and Arby’s.
The group meeting Wednesday used gold shovels to perform the symbolic ground breaking. Other officials present at the event included David Nedved, Allegany County Department of Economic Development; Michael Baylor, Ameriserv Financial Bank; Dirk Yoder, Daystar Builders; Royce Coughenour, Coughenour Surveying and Engineering; and Rodney Shaffer, Shaffer Construction.
There are around 2,200 Holiday Inn Express hotels worldwide and around 600 Cracker Barrel restaurants in 42 U.S states.
Greg Larry can be contacted at glarry@times-news.com.