LBA Properties Expands into Sixth State, Mississippi, with 84-Room Courtyard by MArriott; Opens 85-R
Dennis-delayed Pensacola Courtyard opens with gift of furniture to
DOTHAN, AL, August 9, 2005. LBA Properties, a hotel development/management company based here, is expanding into its sixth state with this month's construction start of an 84-room Courtyard by Marriott in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The company also opened an 85-room Hampton Inn & Suites in Pensacola, Fla. in July.
Barry Kraselsky, president and C.O.O. of LBA Properties, said that the Hattiesburg Courtyard by Marriott, three blocks from the University of Southern Mississippi in the new 40-acre Chauvert Square retail-restaurant-entertainment complex, will open in the spring of 2006.
He added that the opening of the Pensacola Hampton Inn & Suites, delayed a week by Hurricane Dennis, opened with a full house and with the generous donation of a hotel guestroom-full of furniture to Pensacola Habitat for Humanity.
Kraselsky said that the hotel's "housewarming gift" donation to Pensacola Habitat for Humanity - a king-sized bed and headboard, two nightstands, a desk, bench, mirror, television and two pieces of wall art - is part of LBA Properties' "LBA C.A.R.E.S. (Caring Associates Ready and Empowered to Serve)" program, the company's national community service program, through which LBA donates a guestroom-full of hotel furniture to Habitat for Humanity in each community where it opens a new hotel.
LBA also awards all associates nationwide four hours of "free time off" when they volunteer a minimum of four hours of service to Habitat for Humanity. With 900 associates nationally, said Kraselsky, LBA Properties' goal is to donate 4,000 volunteer man-hours to Habitat each year.
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