Wampold buys second Bluebonnet hotel

Mike Wampold, who is developing the Renaissance Baton Rouge Hotel, has purchased a second hotel on Bluebonnet Boulevard. Wampold bought the Quality Suites Hotel near the Bluebonnet/Interstate 10 intersection for $2.35 million in a deal that was filed today. The 120-room Quality Suites is about a mile away from the Renaissance hotel, set to open in late September or early October. Wampold says both of the hotels are “located in what we consider to be the epicenter of the Baton Rouge growth corridor.” Owning two hotels so close together allows for efficiencies of scale in operations and marketing, Wampold says. He envisions spending about the same amount on renovating the Quality Suites as he spent in buying the hotel, redesigning and refurbishing guest rooms and meeting space. “It’s a pretty nice facility, but we’re going to upgrade it,” he says. Plans are to begin renovations of the Quality Suites within the next month and to finish the work by the first quarter of 2012. Adding rooms will also be studied, Wampold says. —Timothy Boone