AN IMMIGRANT FAMILY’S DREAMS COME TRUE

For one who promotes rest, Alkesh Patel is rarely idle. Expanding his family’s Battle Ground-based hotel business takes up more hours in a week than the 40-year-old hotelier cares to track.

PHOTO BY MIKE SALSBURY/ THE COLUMBIAN

“I’m always working, either looking for land or a deal,” said Patel, surrounded by the tools of his position in the upstairs office of his newly opened, 47-room Best Western Battle Ground Inn & Suites. Carpet and upholstery swatches were stacked in the corner next to rolled-up blueprints and office supplies. While he spoke, Patel monitored e-mail on his desktop computer screen and glanced at the display window on his frequently vibrating cell phone. A fax machine hummed in the corner.

His childhood helped shape the driving work ethic. Born in Gujarat, India, Patel grew up as one of five children raised by his widowed mother. “We didn’t take anything for granted,” he said, describing the family’s status as “middle-class.” His father died when Patel was three. His mother was
a housewife.

“We worked as a family to help each other,” Patel said. The tradition continues today through Trupadi Inc., the hotel real estate business Patel co-owns with his wife, Bindiya Patel, and his sister and brother-in-law, Nina and Bhanu Patel. “I oversee the financial side of the business,” said Patel, a key position in a company with holdings that include the $5.9 million Battle Ground facility, five Portland-area hotels and another in Boise with a total of 450 rooms. Each facility is operated under a different franchise brand name, including Best Western, Red Lion and Hilton Hotels.

The family plans to build a $15 million facility in Eugene, Ore., next year. That 100-room hotel and conference center, planned on acreage near Interstate 5, “will be our biggest project so far,” said Patel.

Dry cleaning start

Patel said he dreamed of becoming a hotelier from the moment he arrived in the U.S. at 17. He attended Fort Vancouver High School and Clark College before striking out on his own as a young entrepreneur. After juggling two part-time jobs (managing a pizza shop and working at a dry cleaning store) during college, Patel said he felt ready to own a business.

“My ultimate goal was to be a hotel owner, but I didn’t have the money to buy one,” Patel said. He bought a Cascade Park dry cleaning store instead. Within 10 years, Patel owned a string of Clark County dry cleaning shops.

“The business did well,” Patel said, but the strict regulations on dry cleaning fluids were an industry drawback. “That puts pressure on the landlord to raise the rent because all the shops are in leased quarters,” he said. As the restrictions on dry cleaning chemicals tightened, “I got out,” Patel said.
He sold the business for a profit, which helped Patel acquire the family’s first hotel in 1995. He purchased the 50-room Palms Hotel near the Portland Coliseum for $1.6 million and by 1997, he had acquired two more hotels by financing each purchase to leverage the next transaction. Looking for deals that required a minimum outlay, Patel used the capital to remodel each site, and then refinanced the mortgage to make another investment.

Strength in numbers

Patel learned the strategy as a longtime member of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. “I’ve been a part of it since it was established in 1989,” said Patel, who is now regional director of the six-state organization’s local chapter. With approximately 350 members, the chapter represents a small portion of the national group’s 4,000 members who own more than 22,000 hotels in the U.S.

“They are all owned and operated by people from our community,” Patel said, including a majority of owners who hail from Gujarat and share the Patel name. They are not all related. “It’s a common last name, like ‘Smith,’ in Gujarat,” Patel said.

Second generation

PHOTO BY MIKE SALSBURY/ THE COLUMBIAN

The association was started by second-generation Asian hoteliers who “wanted to take their ‘Mom and Pop’ family businesses to the next level,” Patel said. The cultural network helped the hoteliers drive out discrimination and attract franchise corporations. “The association played a big role in that because, collectively, we could make our voice heard. We wanted to be given a chance,” Patel said.

Patel said 9/11 delayed thousands of new hotel projects, including his Battle Ground hotel, planned shortly before the event. “When the airline industry suffers, you don’t have people coming in,” Patel said. The domino effect caused hotel occupancy rates nationwide to plummet by as much as 20 percent. However, Patel said the industry is on the cusp of a growth curve today, with new projects needed to replace cancelled developments. “We’re seeing more investment now than before 9/11,” he said.

At least one local business leader foresees steady business for the Patel’s Battle Ground hotel, the city’s only lodging facility. “People coming here now have a nice place to stay,” said Diane Rivera, executive director of the Battle Ground Chamber of Commerce. She said the town has long needed a hotel, calling the two-story Best Western “Over the top. I want them to build more rooms,” Rivera said.

According to Patel, more rooms and a conference facility are planned for a future building phase in Battle Ground. However, the company will focus on its Eugene plans first, while continuing to scout for additional sites. His future hotels will likely be built in small towns like Battle Ground, Patel said.
“That’s where hotels can be successful, because they have the need,” Patel said, “and that’s why I love this industry. I like trying to meet those needs. It’s the reason I got into this business. That, and because I love people. In this business, you get to meet new people every day.”