FAIRFAX, VA-Beverly Hills, CA-based Hilton Hotels has announced the opening of a new 149-room Hilton Garden Inn, a franchise owned by Fair Oaks Inn, LLC. The new five-floor structure cost a little over $15 million to build and offers six meeting rooms with 6,000 sf of space, as well as an on-site restaurant and state-of-the-art fitness facility.

The hotel was originally scheduled to open in the last quarter of 2001, but delays put off the debut until this month. “It worked out well,” the hotel's general manager Steve Steinberg tells GlobeSt.com. “We had construction delays totally unrelated to the events of September 11. It was a benefit to us because we didn't have to open in that environment. But we didn't have to delay the opening because of the economy or because of September 11.” The Fairfax locale brings the Hilton Garden Inn list of hotels to more than 125 locations in the US. “We're really excited about joining the community here,” Steinberg says.