What a difference a year makes.
Or not - in the case of the Budgetel Inn & Suites that in August 2016 was said to be two months away from opening in East Ridge just off Interstate 75 in the building that formerly housed the Superior Creek Lodge extended stay motel.
Fast-forward to today, and the 266-room hotel at 1410 N. Mack Smith Road, which has been completely gutted and refurbished over the past year, should open in about two months, according to its new, Atlanta-based owners.
"I'm 95 percent done," said John Patel, one of the principal owners of J.D.H. Developers.
The Budgetel Inn & Suites sign at 1410 N. Mack Smith Road in East Ridge at the former Superior Creek Lodge should open in two months, its owners say.Remaining work includes replacing clay lateral sewer pipes with up-to-code plastic piping and installing a new fire hydrant required by the state fire marshal.
Patel wasn't happy about the requirements he's had to meet at the motel, which was sued by the city of East Ridge when it was still Superior Creek Lodge for safety and building violations and was shut down in September 2015, forcing the evacuation of about 750 people.
His company bought the shuttered hotel in February 2016 for $1.4 million and spent about $2 million refurbishing the 266 rooms in a number of two-story buildings on five acres.
"They just don't want [the building] open," he said. "There's nothing wrong with the sewer line. I think I made a mistake buying that property."
Mark Harrison, executive director of the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority (WWTA), said the clay pipes have to go, since the hotel is an area where there's a moratorium on new sewer hookups due to stormwater infiltration into sewer pipes.
"Clay is no longer allowed to be used," Harrison said. "The concern is groundwater can infiltrate into the seams. Even if the fittings appear to be in good shape, the joints will allow groundwater to seep."
Harrison said he lets planners decide how a building is used. He only cares about the sewer system.
"Our program requires ... to get rid of all clay and cast iron and concrete," he said. "We just want the [sewer pipes] to be as watertight as possible."
The Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office has conducted three reviews of the project since June 2016 when plans were first submitted, said the office's spokesman Kevin Walters via email. The last review was March 3. The plans have failed to address a number of fire safety requirements, he said.
An engineer-sealed fire sprinkler system design has not been submitted, heating of the fire sprinkler riser room - to prevent freezing - has not been shown on the plans, and fire-stopping details for fire sprinkler piping through fire-rated wall and floor assemblies have not been submitted, Walters said. These protect a building and its occupants by preventing the spread of fire and smoke, he said.
"These are all customary plan requirements that must be submitted for all buildings with a fire sprinkler system," Walters said.
East Ridge waiting for state, WWTA approval
East Ridge's Chief Building and Fire Code Official Kenny Custer said the city is just waiting on the new sewer lines and fire hydrant - neither of which it has authority over.
"Basically, this is in the state's hands and WWTA's hands - not the city," Custer said.
"We thought this thing would be open in October a year ago and everything kind of slowed down," Custer said. "We try to facilitate any business, regardless of what it is."
East Ridge City Manager Scott Miller seconded that.
"We work with a lot of developers in this city, and we try to be as user-friendly as we can," he said.
Miller said the Superior Creek Lodge, which opened in 1973, needed a lot of work.
"It was structurally unsound. It was not fit for human habitation," he said. "We didn't just throw people out because it needed a paint job. It had a myriad of problems with it. That was an old, old structure, You've got to update all of that to today's codes."
Amish Patel, director of operations for J.D.H. Developers, said the renovation has taken longer than expected but he hopes to open the re-branded Budgetel hotel this fall. It will be the biggest hotel facility, in terms of hotel rooms, at exit 1 in East Ridge and the biggest hotel for J.D.H. Developers since the company began in 1996.
The Atlanta-based J.D.H. Developers owns about 25 hotels across the Southeast, including five others on the Budgetel brand.
Motel's pool is refurbished
The refurbished hotel will include both apartment-style rooms with kitchens that will be rented by the week and traditional hotel rooms that will be rented overnight to tourists. The hotel includes four different buildings spread out between I-75 and North Mack Smith Road.
"We put in brand new flooring, elevators, appliances and a whole new furniture package," Patel said.
The swimming pool, which had closed even prior to the former Superior Lodge being shut down in 2016, has been renovated.
Patel said he hopes to hire the 15 to 20 employees who will staff the new hotel within about three weeks of the opening this fall. Casey Stineman, who relocated to East Ridge from New Mexico, is the general manager of the hotel.
Patel said rental rates have not yet been set, but he said the hotel rates will be higher than when the former owners used the facility as a temporary apartment-style complex but likely cheaper than most of the other, newer hotels at Exit 1.
"We want to get good people in here and it will definitely be different than it was in the past (as Superior Lodge)," Patel said. "If we have lower occupancy in here at first, that's fine. We want a different image than what was here just before we bought the property."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.