Sep. 5--RALEIGH -- Two Raleigh real estate firms announced Friday that they will break ground this month on a Courtyard by Marriott at Triangle Town Center mall.

The $15 million joint venture is one of the few Triangle hotel projects to move forward at a time when credit remains tight and business and leisure travel sluggish.

Officials with MJM Real Estate Group and the Davidson and Jones Group say the location and the Marriott brand convinced them that the timing was right.

"If you have the right location and the right brand, then any time is a good time to build," said Anuj Mittal, group president for MJM.

The developers are counting on attracting a mixture of retail shoppers, business travelers and people visiting the growing number of residents in that section of North Raleigh.

Mittal said he is optimistic that business and leisure travel will have picked up some by the time the hotel opens a year from now.

Hotel occupancy in Wake County was 60 percent through the end of July, down from 65 percent last year. Revenue per available room in the Wake Forest/U.S. 1 market was down 12 percent in July compared with the same period last year, according to Smith Travel Research, a Tennessee company that tracks the lodging industry.

The four-story, 109-room hotel will be on 2.5 acres along Capital Boulevard near the existing Chili's and Macaroni Grill restaurants. MJM purchased the property from the mall in December for $1.2 million.

Mittal said MJM and Davidson and Jones put in about 50 percent equity and the rest is being financed by Capital Bank.

"The lending environment I feel is not getting any better," Mittal said. " ... [I]n this environment one has to be prepared to put in sizable equity."

Roddy Jones, chairman of Davidson and Jones, said Triangle Town Center is one of the few locations where he would build a hotel given today's market conditions.

"It's amazing how much traffic those things generate, especially on the weekends," he said. "In my opinion, that intersection is going to be a city within a city."

The Marriott is the first joint venture between MJM and Davidson and Jones. It's also the first hotel that MJM, which was founded by Vinita Mittal in 2007, has built from scratch.

Staff writer Sue Stock contributed to this report.

david.bracken@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4548

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