Two new local owners are under contract to convert the former French Quarter Suites Hotel in Midtown’s Overton Square district to a Comfort Suites in a $6 million project.

At a public meeting Wednesday, Feb. 1, at Memphis Heritage, 2282 Madison Ave., partners Jay Kumar and Rishi Chopra revealed their plans to purchase the vacant 103-room hotel at the northeast corner of Cooper Street and Madison Avenue from FQI LLC for $2.3 million and pump about $3.7 million into renovations.

Kumar is owner of Metro/Advantage Cab Co. whose family has a history of business in the hotel industry. Chopra is in the franchise business, running several area Subway restaurants in the past, and recently took over a Baskin Robbins in Collierville.

The meeting was called for a couple of reasons, said Evan Nahmias, attorney with McDonald Kuhn PLLC representing Kumar and Chopra. One is to assure neighborhood stakeholders of local involvement, including architect Richard Molenaar.

The other component, or the “larger picture” as Nahmias called it, is to work with publically-traded lodging company Choice Hotels International Inc., which has a “strong reservation system.”

“The goal is definitely to make the best of what we have,” Nahmias said, adding the property is definite needs of renovations. “Choice hotels, with their national standards, there are goals that have to be met. I think the aesthetic improvements are going to be great for all of us.”

Dennis Daughety, director of franchise sales for Choice Hotels, said the proposed Comfort Suites will be an “all-suites hotel” with an “upper-mid-scale brand.” The average nightly rate will likely topple $100.

The model of Comfort Suites requires a free continental breakfast, Daughety said. There have been preliminary discussions of having an inside lounge, primarily for hotel patrons. Daughety specified that it wouldn’t be a bar, but “just a place to offer a drink in the evening.”

“The structure itself does have banquet facilities and meeting space – we’re still looking to use those,” Daughety said. “These gentlemen have focused on it being a hotel first; it’s not going to be a disco. The first function is to be a hotel.”

To those in attendance who were concerned about the hotel’s quality, Chopra said the target demographic will be corporate visitors to Memphis, mentioning nearby institutions like the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.

“We’re trying to make this as nice as we can,” Chophra said. “We don’t want to open a low budget property that nobody’s going to want to stay in.”

Chopra also mentioned him and his business partner’s willingness to be involved with Loeb Properties Inc.’s $19.2 million redevelopment process of the Square.

Built in 1984, the 77,866-square-foot hotel at 2144 Madison Ave. closed its doors in July 2008. The brick wall surrounding the hotel that was part of the original planned development will stay in tact, and signage will depend on the city’s requirements, Chopra said.

Kumar said the Comfort Suites will have 97 parking spaces, and that they “might be able to work something out” as far as a valet service in accordance with the city’s new $16 million parking structure with detention basin underneath on what is now a large parking lot bordering Cooper Street.

There is a 60-day due diligence period, and the site approval plans with the city will follow. Construction, once commenced, will likely last eight to nine months.

The proposed Comfort Suites will create about 30 jobs, including management and the sales team, but Kumar and Chopra “will be managing it ourselves day to day,” Chopra said.

The partners don’t yet have a financial commitment for the debt side of the deal, but they have been in discussions with “a couple of banks,” Chopra said. The project’s financing is about 20 percent equity and 80 percent debt.