Families of graduating Duke students--who have to book rooms at the Washington Duke Inn years in advance--may reconsider lodging plans, after the Board of Trustees gave preliminary approval to an expansion proposal for the inn earlier this month.
The plan--which calls for up to 100 additional guest rooms, a fitness facility, an indoor pool, a permanent business center, more conference and meeting space, renovation of employee work spaces and an expanded lobby--would tentatively cost between $25 million and $30 million.
The initiative is aimed at increasing capacity, enhancing the four-star hotel's facilities and integrating the hotel, located on the edge of campus, with the University community, said Washington Duke Inn General Manager Don DeFeo.
If the Board approves a more in-depth plan at its October meeting, construction could start as early as 2003 and finish in late 2004, said Scott Selig, associate vice president for capital assets, who helps coordinate the University's real estate planning.
"Just about everybody needs more space at the Washington Duke," Selig said. "There is increasing utilization from Duke and the outside, and now we have better details of what the market is demanding."
Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said the expansion is part of the University's plan to integrate the hotel into the campus environment--a plan that prompted accepting students' food points and FLEX accounts at the inn's dining venues last semester.
DeFeo said the workout facility, business center and meeting rooms are intended to keep the Washington Duke competitive with other local establishments. The hotel would finance the addition through increased revenues, a plan DeFeo estimated would take 10 years.
The extra rooms would be particularly important on weekends like graduation, homecoming and recruiting weekends, when the hotel is busiest.
"People who come to Duke want to stay at Duke," DeFeo said. "The expansion will make that possible for more people."
In addition, Trask said the University's current policy to accommodate guests who want to exercise with temporary use of on-campus gyms has been inconvenient. He added that the new business center and meeting rooms will allow the University to host more events on campus.
Currently, the hotel's largest meeting room holds only 400 people; DeFeo said the University often needs room for a capacity of 600 to 700.
The Board has heard discussion of similar plans at least two other times in the last six years. Trask said two factors made this year's plan more successful: the arrival of Selig, Fuqua '92, who began his position in October after coming from a real estate developing position in Arkansas, and the transfer of oversight of the 13-year-old hotel back to the University from Duke University Management Company, the University's investment company.
"Before, it was a question of how much money can we make," Trask said. "Now it's more of how can we make this the facility we want it to be."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.