Comfort Suites project nearing completion off Belmont Avenue

LIBERTY

The dream a local developer had to build a hotel on Belmont Avenue steadily is becoming a reality.

The $7-million project to build the three-floor, 86-room Comfort Suites off Belmont in Liberty is expected to be complete by August, if not earlier.

“It looks so beautiful now,” said Dr. V.C. Perni, developer of the project. “We have more ideas for the future.”

The hotel still is filled with construction workers hustling to complete the nearly 54,000-square-foot hotel on the 2.5 acre site that not very long ago was a Ramada Inn.

Perni, a Liberty resident for more than 40 years, watched that inn thrive and later close. He then saw the property become an eyesore in the township, and he wanted to do

something about it. So in 2007, he bought it for $1.2 million, according to Vindicator archives.

Eight years later — after investing time and resources to rid the Ramada of asbestos, demolish it and develop a plan — the Comfort Suites is coming together.

One plan Perni and investors have is to develop a conference center next to the hotel.

Read more about the project in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.