The property is owned by Latitude Hotels Group Royersford LP and will be managed by Ocean Hospitalities Inc. under a license agreement with an InterContinental Hotels Group company. Denver Architects of Glen Mills, PA was selected as architects for the 104-key, 68,730-sf hotel, which will feature rooms with fully equipped kitchens and work areas. The hotel will also house a 1000-sf meeting room, a business center, a 24-hour convenience store and a fitness center. Reading, PA-based E.R. Steubner Inc. will be the builder, and construction will be managed by Castle Drawbridge Associates of Bala Cynwyd, PA.

Dan Henretty, IHG's regional director of franchise development, tells GlobeSt.com that the company targeted the area because of the strong demand generators. Those demand generators include the many major companies located nearby, including Cingular, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and Verizon. According to Robert Radomski, VP of brand management and extended-stay brands for IHG, about 80% of Staybridge customers are business travelers. The hotel's owners hope to capture some of the tourist traffic to nearby Valley Forge National Park, and to that end have included Valley Forge in the hotel's official name: Royersford Valley Forge.

Perhaps because Staybridge caters mainly to business travelers, the brand has remained strong despite the slowdown in the economy. "We're not seeing any indication of a slowdown in development of any of our brands," says Radomski. "Our pace of signings across several brands is stronger and heavier now that it has ever been. There's no slowing as far as the pace of development either. There hasn't been any slowdown in the pipeline of deals that have been executed or are in various stages of planning or construction."