Courage required for renovations

For most people, $14 million is a lot of money to spend. For John Belden, chief executive officer of Davidson Hotel Company, it was basically a necessity.

Belden's company announced the completion of a renovations project that took place at Westshore's Sheraton Suites hotel recently. But while updated atrium and new meeting space are sure to impress, Coffee Talk was curious about what it felt like to spend such a significant amount of cash in such a down economy.

“It takes a lot of courage,” Belden said, “but I think we're going to be rewarded significantly.”

Belden pointed to the importance of his relationship with Square Mile Capital Management, a co-owner of the Sheraton Suites with Davidson. He said it would have been “very, very easy” for Square Mile to advocate holding off on investing in the project.

But the companies' decision to act when it did was “insightful,” Belden said, and took advantage of what he called “demand disruption” to complete the job.