Opening marks Roxbury milestone

With the opening today of the Hampton Inn & Suites at Crosstown Center, the Roxbury community will have reached another historical marker, welcoming the city's first African-American-owned national hotel franchise.

The 10-story hotel at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard will not only be Boston's first black-owned franchise hotel, it also will be the 18th majority minority-owned brand-name hotel among 47,000 hotels nationwide, officials said.

''Today we celebrate commitment . . . and pride," said developer and part-owner Kirk A. Sykes, who was among hotel representatives and local leaders at the site yesterday to celebrate the venture. ''Pride is too soft a word for what we built for this project and for our community."

Developers said the contemporary metal structure with its glass tower brings economic potential to the community, including jobs and retailers. Almost all of the hotel's 43 staff members are minorities, including the general manager, Phillip W. Tucker.

''This is part of a new oasis in the city," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. ''The first part of the change is to employ people in the community; you can't leave anybody behind."

The hotel, on the site of the former Digital computer factory, is part of the first phase of the Crosstown Center of Roxbury, a project launched in 1999 by Menino and local leaders looking to economically rejuvenate Roxbury and neighboring areas.

The $65 million project was funded in part through the city with grants and loans totaling about $17 million. The hotel is owned by a partnership that includes Sykes, president of Primary Corp., Corcoran Jennison Co., and a majority of other African-American owners.

Sykes said the hotel is expected to accommodate people who frequent the downtown area and the hotel's neighbor, Boston Medical Center, which sees about 1 million patients and visitors a year.

The facility already is sold out for the week of this month's Democratic National Convention. A large number of reservations for the convention are from African-American delegates, Tucker said.

The 175-room facility, touted as only a seven-minute ride from Logan International Airport, offers an average daily rate of $150 and consists of 50 suites and 125 regular-sized rooms. The first floor will have 22,000 square feet reserved for retail space, which is expected to employ about 200 people. Construction also was completed on a 650-car garage.