Local & State Headlines

Albany hotels touted

• The Country Inn & Suites and the renovated Best Western will bring 40-50 new jobs to Albany, developers say.

Holly McCarthy

ALBANY — The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County Chamber of Commerce joined together Thursday to officially welcome the new Country Inn & Suites in northwest Albany.

Visitors were treated to a luau-style ribbon cutting ceremony, with leis adorning tables and flowers behind the ears of many guests. The breezy sounds of Jimmy Buffet songs wafted from the speakers during the first 90-degree afternoon Albany has seen in more than a week.

The hotel’s 70 rooms range in price from $89-$149 per night, according to Operations Manager Lou Jones.

Jones said the hotel caters to both families and business travelers with a fitness center, meeting rooms, business center, indoor pool with whirlpool and sauna, Jacuzzi suites and indoor corridor access to rooms.

Among the speakers at the ceremony was Albany Mayor Willie Adams, who praised owner Navin Patel for bringing more jobs to the area with the Country Inn & Suites at 2809 Nottingham Way as well as the renovation of the Best Western on Pointe North Boulevard.

“Jobs, jobs, jobs — that’s what we like to hear,” Adams said.

The revamped Best Western- Albany Mall Inn & Suites will have its grand reopening Oct. 9.

The two hotels will create about 40-50 new jobs, according to Frederick W. Cerrone, president and CEO of Country Inn’s Atlanta-based development company, Hotel Equities.

“We think we’re a good, clean fit for Albany because we pay taxes, and those that visit us pay taxes that go back into the Chamber of Commerce,” Cerrone said, “which in turn spends money to promote more tourism. It’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak.”

Hotel owner Navin Patel said he is happy to be investing in Albany, where he and his wife, Lasti, have lived since 1994.

Patel said he moved to Albany a week before the disastrous flooding of the Flint River to work as a mechanical engineer for Procter & Gamble.

Patel has since opened a consulting firm in addition to his hotel operations.