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Hotel Project Bounces Back After Blaze

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By ANGELA DELGADO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - A fire on June 29 burned a good portion of the Best Western Inn & Suites under construction, but that didn't knock down owner Mike Patel; the hotel will be ready for business by December.

The 65-room hotel had freshly painted walls, furniture in every room and new carpeting when a four-alarm fire took hold of it three weeks before it was scheduled to open.

'You name it; everything was done,' Patel said.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue crews responded to the fire that engulfed the fourth floor and attic of the 41,000-square-foot hotel 200 feet west of Dale Mabry Highway and south of Waters Avenue. Hillsborough Fire Rescue spokesman Ray Yeakley said the fire began on the east side of the building and spread quickly, due to air coming in from open windows.

The cause was undetermined.

'Although inspectors had a lot of evidence that pointed to the possibility of smoking, it wasn't a clear-cut case,' Yeakley said. 'They listed it as undetermined. That is the way it will remain because there isn't any more evidence.'

Patel said crews immediately began gutting the whole building and started reconstruction in August. The roof was redesigned, the fourth floor was rebuilt, and the first three floors had the furniture removed as well as the appliances, carpeting, dry wall and insulation. The exterior walls received new stucco, and workers changed the look of the hotel. All wood was removed from the building and replaced with concrete, so 'we don't have to go through another devastating fire like this,' he said.

The sprinkler system was replaced, and the fire alarm monitoring system was redesigned. Several measures have been taken to prevent another incident like this from happening again, Patel said.

Patel, of Dev Krupa, a company based in the Tampa Bay area, worked with contractors Nish Construction, of Lake Mary, on the project.

'We worked together to get over this devastating fire that disturbed us in a very bad way,' he said. 'It's just an unfortunate thing that happened, and thank God that there were no injuries or casualties. With the grace of God we just were saved that way. That's the only positive way we can take it; everything else is negative in that fire.'

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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