Some people believe it takes 500 properties for a hotel chain to become a mega-brand. If so, Hilton Garden Inn reached mega-brand status earlier this month with the opening of its 500th unit, a 118-room property in Concord, NC, a suburb of Charlotte. It only took 14 years for the brand to reach the 500-property plateau.

It wasn’t easy for developers Griffin Stafford Lodging to complete the project. The firm originally broke ground on the hotel in June 2008 based on a partial loan commitment from a bank with which it had done business in the past. It began site work, poured the pad and erected some steel, but by late summer, the bank said it needed to get other banks on board to complete the financing. Before the loan package could be secured, the credit markets went into free fall.

“We stopped construction in October (2008) and my partner, Doug Stafford, and I had to do some dog and pony shows to line up additional financing,” says Joel Griffin, a principal. “It’s always about relationships, and we were able to get a commitment from Capital Bank of Raleigh. What started as them participating in the loan ended up with Capital writing the entire package for us.”

Even with financing in hand, however, the company delayed construction for a few more months, relaunching last April. “It was a conscious decision on our part because we felt it better to open in the third month of 2010, which is when some of the major demand generators in the market begin to kick in,” says Griffin.

The property sits in one of the most dynamic submarkets of Charlotte and benefits from several strong generators of weekend business. Nearby are both the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the zMax Dragway, and across the interstate is Concord Mills shopping mall, the number-one tourist destination in the Charlotte area. Griffin also says the area hosts numerous amateur athletic events.

“The first three months of operation look good to us,” he says. “Last weekend were drag races. Next weekend, we expect some sports-related business and from an auto show at the speedway. Then we roll into the two big NASCAR races in May.”

While Griffin says it will be more of a challenge to fill the property mid-week with business guests, he believes the hotel’s 3,500 square feet of meeting space will be a competitive edge.

“There is a lot of demand in this market for small meetings and functions, and we have the capabilities to serve 175 plated meals in one room,” says Griffin. “The options in this market vary from an Embassy Suites with 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of space to most select-service properties that typically have about 900 square feet.”

The developers opted to include Hilton Garden Inns’ new Pavilion prototype in its design. Griffin says the new Pavilion design encourages guests to use the public space for socializing, relaxing or, most often, working.

“Gen Y and Gen X guests, in particular, don’t want to sit in their rooms to work. They want to be alone but not feel alone,” he says. “The seating arrangements flow easily from the dining area into the Pavilion and the bar area, giving it all a cozier, more intimate feel.”

Concorde Construction built the hotel, as well as a sister Hilton Garden Inn Griffin Stafford operates in another Charlotte suburb. On both projects, Concorde followed a rigorous construction waste-recycling program. At the Concord site, the contractor recycled 468,000 pounds of construction waste, about 92 percent of the entire construction load.

Griffin Stafford is also developing a Home2 Suites by Hilton property in Mooresville, NC, near the world headquarters of Lowe’s home improvement stores.

Sixty Hilton Garden Inns opened last year, with more than 100 in the development pipeline.