S&T Bank, which has financed seven of Concord's nine area hotels, provided the loan. The Courtyard by Marriott will have 124 rooms and be located in the 580,000-square-foot Settlers Ridge retail development being built by Faison at Parkway West and Ridge Road.

The hotel, already under construction, is to open in the spring of 2010. Other tenants planned for the Settlers Ridge development include P.F. Chang's, Cinemark and a Market District grocery store, which is operated by Giant Eagle.

Concord currently has 11 hotels under construction. "We believe there are solid opportunities to develop hotels in all phases of the economy," says Mark Laport, the company's president and chief executive officer. "There are certain advantages to being a contrarian, if you have the expertise and the funding to back it up."