University of Delaware becomes hotel entrepreneur: a public school invests in the hospitality business.

The University of Delaware is soon to become the Latest school with a full-service hotel on campus. But unlike other colleges and universities, which typically Lease Land to an outside company to build and manage the facility, UD is playing the role of entrepreneur.

UD has invested $9 million to build its 126-room hotel, another $3 million has been put up by Shaner Hotel Group, State College, Pa. Together they have formed a for-profit company called Blue Hen Hotel LLC, which is named after the university's mascot. Blue Hen, in turn, struck up a franchise agreement with Marriott International to run the new hotel as a Courtyard by Marriott. Both investors will profit if all goes well. UD will get 75 percent of the proceeds because of its majority investment.

The hotel will benefit from a built-in Labor pool, since some of the staff will be made up of UD students enrolled in its school of hotel and restaurant management.

It's hoped that the hotel will boost business for UD's conference center, which recently underwent a $4.1 million renovation. While UD's Clayton Hall Conference Center generates an estimated $4.3 million in annual revenue, UD has Lost conference business because there was no adjacent hotel, says Bill Sullivan, managing director of the hotel and conference center. Conference attendees had to travel two miles for the nearest overnight accommodations. The hotel and conference center will sit side by side on the north end of the school's Newark campus Location.

UD's hotel is scheduled to open in November.