By Tricia Pemberton
Business Writer

An 80 room hotel is under construction near the Belle Isle Station shopping center near Northwest Expressway and Classen Boulevard, with an expected completion date in November.

Hasmukh Patel, the franchise owner is building and AmeriSuites at 1511 Northwest Expressway.

Patel said the hotel will cost about 5.3 million to complete and is being financed by the First National Bank of Midwest City.

He said it’s a good area, where other hotels enjoy good occupancy rates, and there is a possibility of mor restaurant and business office development nearby.

In addition to the traditional two room suites that AmeriSuites offers, several rooms will have Jacuzzi’s, Patel said. an exercise room and outoddr swimming pool are planned.

Marilyn Kramer, manager of the near by Courtyard by Marriott, said the hotel market as a whole has been down since July 2002, and she also has heard rumors of coming business since her hotel opened in 1998. Still, she said she’s happy to have another hotel going up near her, even though more rooms initially will mean a smaller slice of business for her.

“It’s kind of lonely out here,” she said.

Despite the proximity to Belle Isle Shopping and restaurants, Penn Square Mall and 50 Penn Place, Kramer said her hotel has only enjoyed about a 60 percent occupancy rate in recent months.

She attributes the mediocre rate to the lack of corporate travelers to her area and slowdown in the travel industry as a whole.

“It’s the perception of us being far away from Edmond, when in fact we’re about 2 minutes away,” she said.

She also said she’s concerned that the state is losing business to other states and not seeing businesses relocate here. Kramer said after the terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, business started to decline. Now with the war, business is even worse.

“I doubt if it ever goes back,” she said, “but who knows”

What we’re all hoping for down here is an office building and more restaurants.”

There is more space for restaurants and more land for sale north of the Belle Isle Shopping Center. AmeriSuites was planned for this site when construction started at Belle Isle Station in 1998, but Patel said it was held up by easement problems and a problem securing financing.

The developer, Kusum Inc., bought the property from Sapphire Properties of Dallas, which owns most of the Belle Isle center.

The AmeriSuites franchise is owned by Prime Hospitality of Fairfield, N.J.