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New Owners Stephen Dawahare and Joseph Montgomery
 Hope a $10 million Renovation will Remake Lexington's
 Campbell House into the Landmark it Was
 When it Opened in 1951
By Hilary Henry, Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jul. 25--New owners Stephen Dawahare and Joseph Montgomery hope a $10 million renovation will remake Lexington's Campbell House into the landmark it was when it opened in 1951.

"This was the property to go to," Dawahare said of the hotel, which in its earlier days hosted such celebrities as Elvis, Queen Elizabeth and Bob Hope. "We're bringing back the history. The hotel is an icon to this community."

Yesterday, the new owners and management led tours of the completed dining room and two refurbished rooms while explaining the final vision for the property to a cast of local businessmen and politicians, including Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac.

The 52-year-old hotel was showing signs of its age when Dawahare and Montgomery bought the property from longtime owner K.A. Cormney in October 2002.

"It was elegant at one time, but over the years it's gotten antiquated," said manager Greg Pearce. He added that it will be opened "with all the grandeur and Southern elegance that it once enjoyed but in a contemporary mode."

When completed in early 2004, the hotel will offer 290 individually decorated rooms and three places to eat, including a lunchtime pastry shop and a French Quarter-themed burger place.

The main dining room is open daily with Lexington native Joe Milanich as chef.

To market their investment, Dawahare and Montgomery hired Barry Hoehn, the man who made a tourist attraction out of the Peabody ducks that walk across the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.

Hoehn, a 37-year veteran of the hotel marketing industry, said his job now is to get local customers back to The Campbell House.

"Our goal is to have the competition chasing us and not the other way around," he said. "We offer Southern charm and hospitality which can't be found elsewhere in Lexington."

-----To see more of the Lexington Herald-Leader, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kentucky.com.

(c) 2003, Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

 
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