Evidence that the hotel industry starting a gradual long-term upward ride can be seen in the recent $4.7 million purchase of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Southern Pines.

BPR Pinehurst LLC, a subsidiary of BPR Properties in Greensboro, plans to spend another $1.2 million in the next year renovating the 107-room property off U.S. 15-501. The sale closed April 25.

“We’re going to redo the guest rooms with new furniture, new carpet and new paint,” said Bhupen Patel, principal at BPR Properties. “We’re also going to redo the lobby and repaint the exterior. The property hasn’t been renovated since 2007. We’ll start working on it this summer and hopefully finish before the spring golf season next year.”

In addition to its all-suite rooms, the three-story hotel includes a fitness center, swimming pool and 392-square-foot meeting room. Guests also receive a complimentary breakfast.

BPR Properties, which has been in the hotel and real estate development businesses for 25 years, owns five other hotels in North Carolina and one in Georgia, and has several others under construction in both states.

“We were familiar with the Moore County market because we used to own the Holiday Inn (now the Days Inn) on U.S. 1,” Patel said. “That market has been beat up in the past couple of years, but we noticed that business is picking up.”

Occupancy and the average daily rate in Moore County were up 22 percent and 8 percent, respectively, in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period last year, said Caleb Miles, president and CEO of the Pinehurst-Southern Pines-Aberdeen Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“There’s some good value out there in terms of lodging properties,” Miles said. “People are buying hotels and then reinvesting if they’re able to get it under market value. It seems to be a pretty good formula.”

Summit Hospitality Group Ltd. in Raleigh did just that last October when it purchased the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Olmstead Village for $6.5 million, then vowed to spend another $2 million renovating the 100-room hotel.

“We’re about three-fourths of the way through with rooms renovation,” Eric Tannery, director of development for Summit, said last week. “We still have the public space to go. We expect to be done with everything sometime in July.”

Although Summit has not owned the hotel long enough to compare year-over-year numbers, Tannery said business has been robust since last fall.

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the way the property has started out, as far as being a quality edition to our portfolio. It has performed very well,” he said. “The change in ownership has been well received, and the local management team has been aggressive in selling the property under the new ownership. Timing-wise, everything has worked out very well.”

Miles said both companies were smart to update their properties, because “fresh” rooms with modern amenities are critical in such a competitive industry.

“As you look at all the properties, they are all going through the process of evaluating where they are and what they need to do in terms of reinvestment,” Miles said. “My guess is the people will definitely see the changes at both properties, which will help our market overall.”

Patel said his company is counting on the Marriott name.

“One of the main reasons for us to get this property was because it was the Marriott brand,” he said. “We like their brand. Moore County is a good leisure market due to golf. Even though the market has been soft the past couple of years, we’re excited to be back in it.”

Miles said the Marriott brand “does very well here,” and he looks forward to meeting Patel and his team.

“The sale is terrific news for our area because it takes a property and gives is some new energy,” Miles said. “I look forward to seeing the new product. I think they’ll do very, very well.”

Contact Ted M. Natt Jr. at tnatt@thepilot.com.