ATLANTA—CQ Construction and CQ Capital Partners, both parts of the Clarkston, Ga.-based Charania Group of Companies (CGC), are completing construction of a new Cambria Suites property that is located less than one-half mile from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The 143-room hotel, which includes a restaurant, bar, swimming pool and meeting space, is well on its way to earning a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. According to Rahim Charania, president of CGC, the Choice Hotels International franchised property will open in the first quarter of 2009 and is expected to receive its LEED certification shortly thereafter.
What makes the $15 million hotel unique? It will include a 25,000-gallon storm water recycling tank beneath the hotel’s parking structure. Water held there will be used for irrigation—an important step given the Southeast’s recent drought conditions. A laundry water recycling system will save 3 million gallons of water a year and reduce associated water heating costs by 35 percent. The recycling system will also reduce the flow of water into the sewage system by 2.5 million gallons of water annually.
A $160,000 gray water recycling system will reuse water from showers and sinks for toilet flushing. A $100,000 energy management system that utilizes infrared sensors will reduce guestroom heating and cooling costs by 35 to 45 percent. The system will turn off lights after a guest has left the room and turn back the HVAC equipment to a predetermined set point. Software communicating through a high-speed fiber optic network in the hotel will enable management to remotely monitor guestroom energy consumption.
Utility Costs Slashed
Charania says a Cambria Suites hotel the size his company is building typically would have annual utility costs of $200,000 per year.
“We will save about 40 percent of that, adding $80,000 to the bottom line,” he says.
Charania expects the green technologies to cost about 4 percent of construction costs. Using today’s utility rates, the payback should be a little more than three years. Upon receiving its LEED Gold honor, the Cambria Suites would be the first LEED Gold hotel in the Southeast.
“I am very passionate about this,” says Charania, who expects there will come a day soon when all new-construction hotels in the United States will be built to LEED standards. “Consumers want it and it does add value to the bottom line.”
Months away from opening, Charania says his company already has been getting a lot of calls from the media, further encouraging him to move forward toward his goal of building additional green hotels.
“In the future, CQ Construction will be building only green hotels,” he says. “Our hotel company, CHG, will also be developing only green hotels—at the LEED Silver level or higher.”
Go to CGC.
