GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Dallas Hotelier Building 719 Rooms

The privately owned Western International is lobbing an aggressive play for key locations in "drive-to" markets with a seasoned eye for site selection. One Fort Worth site took two years of talking before the office building owner let go of an abutting parking lot at 3250 W. Vickery Blvd., where a 145-room Springhill Suites has started to rise. Western International's also building a 92-room Courtyard by Marriott across town at the intersection of Interstate 30 and Land's End. Both will deliver in the fall.

The Houston package consists of a 120-room Residence Inn and 100-room Courtyard, both in the West University section, while the lone full-service is the 262-room Marriott in the Redmond Town Center.

It's the Fort Worth project along Vickery that has caught the attention of locals because it's the closest hotel to the CBD to rise in several years. And, it's coming at a time when hotels are perhaps one of the hottest issues confronting the new mayor, former state Sen. Mike Moncrief, who along with council will receive a report in June from a citizens commission about whether it's sound strategy to proceed with a convention hotel.

"It (the Springhill Suites) should be a hotel that has a pretty good occupancy because of its proximity to all the attractions in Fort Worth," assesses Robert Riley, the city's development director. The 2.6-acre hotel project includes a three-story parking garage that fronts Interstate 30 at University Drive and is three miles west of the CBD.

Mike Mahoney, development partner for Western International, says the aggressive building plan has been undertaken to put the 30-year-old company "ahead of the curve" when the hospitality industry rebounds. "The market will be coming back sooner rather than later," he says, pointing out the strategy is leveraged by limited-service properties, except for the Redmond hotel.

Mark E. Van Amerongen, Western International's executive vice president, credits the seasoned eye of senior partner and founder, B. "Gene" Carter, with the insight to the sites and the patience to negotiate what he wants. It took two years to get the Vickery Boulevard parking lot, but it took six to land the lot at 325 Convention Center Dr. in Las Vegas, where Western International erected a Marriott across the street from the convention center.

"We choose sites in somewhat secondary markets with potential for growth," Amerongen tells GlobeSt.com. "We have an advantage with our management company that allows us to outperform our competitors. Even in the tough markets we've been in, we've been very successful."

Western International, which employs about 20 at its Dallas corporate office, has management staffs of up to 75 at each facility. The four-state portfolio has 11 hotels managed by Texas Western International, and another 18 owned, of which seven are Marriott managed. The portfolio also includes hotels in Tempe, Tucson, Seattle, and the Texas cities of Brownsville, Harlingen and Austin.

Amerongen says the push to build, with the per key cost upward of $70,000, is tied to a firm belief that "we're at the bottom on the cycle," a stance held by the management team and investment partners alike as their scouts check out Tucson for a second location.