Chapel Hill inn to close

CHAPEL HILL -- The town will soon lose perhaps its most prominent gateway landmark.

The one-story Best Western University Inn, with its white columns, quaint cupolas and expansive front lawn on N.C. 54 near U.S. 15-501, will close Sept. 16.

Built in 1952, the inn became the second lodging establishment in Chapel Hill. The first was the Carolina Inn on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

The University Inn has hosted generations of students and their families, along with Hollywood stars and NASA astronauts, according to a news release.

Demolition will start in early October, making way for East 54, an urban village planned for the 12-acre site near the Finley Golf Course. East 54 will have 180 condos, plus offices, shops, restaurants and a new hotel.

Mark Sherburne, vice president of hotel operations for owner and developer East-West Partners, manages the inn and will oversee planning for the new hotel. He said room rates at the yet-unnamed hotel will be more than $100 a night, compared with $80 or $90 a night at the University Inn.

"It definitely has a niche in the market," Sherburne said. "The typical rate in Chapel Hill is over $100."

Laurie Paolicelli, executive director of the Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau, said the Hampton Inn and Days Inn on U.S. 15-501 near Eastgate Shopping Center would still provide rooms for less than $100 a night.

She expects the new hotel, whatever brand it turns out to be, will help lure customers to Chapel Hill from southern Durham, where newer hotels charge $70 to $150 per night.

"Anytime there's an event that requires a lot of the midpriced rooms, it's much easier now for visitors to go stay in Durham," Paolicelli said. "We lose business, and all of us are looking at economic development now, so that hurts."