On the other hand, it is expanding its Country Hearth brand and opening more than six Country Hearth Inns in the Southeast this quarter, with plans to add properties throughout the year.
It also expects to report a profit during the second half of 2001, Bill Bausser, the firm's senior vice president/administration, tells GlobeSt.com. In 1999, Buckhead America reported a net income of $1.7 million, or 61 cents per share. Total revenue was $32.3 million.
Buckhead America recently changed the management team at Lodge Keeper Group and moved some of that division's operations to Atlanta. The company is evaluating whether it will move all of that division to its headquarters, Bausser tells GlobeSt.com. Buckhead owns and manages about 40 of the 56 Country Hearth Inns operating in the Southeast, Midwest and Texas. The company also manages five outside-owned Country Hearth properties.
Buckhead's management arm, Lodge Keeper Group, manages about 60 hotels, including Days Inns, Holidays Inns, Ramadas, Suburban Lodges, Super 8's, Travelodges and Villagers. In addition, the company owns or has equity in 33 hotels, most of them brands that it manages.
Up for sale are 10 Country Hearth Inns. The Georgia properties are in Monroe, 35 miles east of Downtown; and in Dalton, 93 miles northwest of the city, Bausser says.
The three hotels in Kentucky and one in Texas are under contract for an undisclosed sum to undisclosed buyers. The monies from the sales will be used to pay down debt and to open additional hotels, particularly the company's Country Hearth Inn brand, Bausser says.
With a few exceptions, Buckhead America locates its Country Hearth Inns in rural areas. Bausser calls the company's development program rural gold. Buckhead develops, primarily through new construction, 40-unit Country Hearth Inns in towns with a population of 12,000 to 15,000. Ideally, there is a college or university or some primary source of business nearby, Bausser says. Total construction cost, including land, is about $1.35 million per hotel or about $33,750 per room.
A Country Hearth Inn will open next week in Toccoa, GA, about 95 miles northeast of Atlanta. Four others in small towns around the state are under development and due to open by mid-year.
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