eSuites Hotel to Launch in Southside, Jacksonville

A hotel industry newcomer has chosen Jacksonville as a site for one of the first four hotels he will build.

eSuites Hotels is the creation of Jordan Ellenburg, a hotel industry outsider who developed the brand after he could not find a hotel with the amenities he wanted.

The first four eSuites Hotels will be in Jacksonville, Tampa, Phoenix and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. In May the company closed on $127 million in financing to pay for construction.

The Jacksonville hotel will be at the intersection of J. Turner Butler Boulevard and Interstate 95. The permitting process is not finished, but construction is scheduled to start in October and be finished by Labor Day 2008.

"eSuites Hotels began as a hobby, something to do while whiling away my time waiting in airports," Ellenburg said. "I would work up a wish list on the back of a cocktail napkin.

"After a while I had a whole book of napkins, and then it hit me. If I felt this way about hotels, what about the next generation of hotel guests, who are more tech-savvy?"

Each of the first four hotels will have eight stories and 224 rooms, with 11 high-tech conference rooms and a business center with computers, scanners, copiers and fax machines.

Source: Jacksonville Business Journal