The hotel, which also has a restaurant, lounge and upto20,000-sf of meeting space, will be managed byRadisson Corp., oneof four hotel brands in theMinnetonka, MN-based Carlson Cos. Onceit undergoes amajor renovation project, the hotel will be renamedthe RadissonHotel Richardson. The conversion is expected tobecompleted by the end of the first quarter of 2001.Financial termsof the deal were not disclosed.

The hotel's main potential is in its location in oneof thefastest growing sections of the Dallas-FortWorth area, a sectionwhich has been dubbed "theTelecom Corridor," says Eric Danziger,chairman ofRadisson-Olympus Capital Partners and president andchiefoperating officer of Carlson Hotels Worldwide.The highconcentration of telecommunications serviceswill also be a nice fitto serve thetelecommunications needs of Carlson'sreservationsdelivery systems, global customer baseandsister-companies Carlson Wagonlit Travel and CarlsonMarketingGroup, Danizger says.

The first priority for the alliance, formed thissummer, is tobuy hotels for conversion and managementunder Carlson's Radissonand Regent InternationalHotel brands. The partnership pairsOlympus'investment and corporate development expertisewithCarlson's skills in global hotel and travel industrybrandbuilding.Radisson-Olympus is hunting for full-servicehotelproperties in the top 25 or so major metropolitanmarkets, witha particular bent toward buying,renovating and converting hotels inthe mid-markethotel segment where often they are "under managedandunder branded."