May 4--One of Savannah's oldest funeral homes might soon become an upscale hotel, restaurant and parking garage. 

Service Corporation International, which owns the Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors complex at 700 Drayton St., is selling the property to Richard Kessler, a nationally known hotelier. 

Steve Weeks, who operates the funeral home with his twin brother, Jim, said they plan to quit using the property but will stay in business at three other locations. Fox & Weeks has funeral homes in Garden City, on Whitemarsh Island and on Hodgson Memorial Drive. The Hodgson Memorial site will become the new headquarters for the business. There are no plans for additional facilities. 

Weeks said he believes a sales contract has been signed but that no formal closing date has been set. It would take at least 30 days to move out. Weeks wouldn't state a sales price but did say it was between $1 million and $10 million. 

"This was kind of a heart-wrenching decision to make," Weeks said. "But this was strictly a business decision. At some point, the dirt, the property, became more valuable than the business itself." 

The hotel plans came to the attention of many Savannah residents Tuesday night when the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission voted to approve a zoning change for the property. The new zoning classification will allow the sale and consumption of alcohol. It already allows a hotel. 

The City Council gets the final say and is due to vote on the matter at its next meeting. 

Kessler, born in Rincon, has been in the hotel industry for more than 30 years, and is known for developing upscale hotels, which he operates as Grand Theme Hotels, based in Orlando, Fla. 

At 23, Kessler became the right hand to real estate developer Cecil Day. The pair developed the concept of the Days Inn national hotel chain. When he was 29, Kessler became president and CEO of Days Inn, and a year later, chairman. 

The Days Inn chain was sold in 1984 for $750 million. In 1985, Kessler founded his own company, The Kessler Enterprise, which develops and operates projects such as a 900-acre international industrial park, a 500-acre planned unit development and a series of banks. 

Some in the community are wary about a new hotel being built in the Historic District. Traditionally, hotels have been closer to Bay and River streets. The proposed hotel, bordered by Drayton, Hall, Gwinnett and Abercorn streets, would be the largest business in the mostly residential neighborhood. 

"I think the plans we saw were very preliminary and were showed to us with the understanding that it would be changing," said Mark McDonald, president of the Historic Savannah Foundation. "We thought what they were presenting would face objections" at MPC, he said. 

The Weeks family sold the Fox & Weeks business to the Sentinel Group of Stanford, Conn. in 1987, which sold it to Service Corporation International of Houston, Texas in 1991. Jim and Steve Weeks continue to manage the local operations of Fox & Weeks for Service Corporation International. 

Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors is one of the oldest and largest funeral businesses in the state. It opened in 1882 and moved to its current spot -- the Kayton-Granger-Huger House -- on Drayton in 1953. 

The 17,500 square-foot brick and terra cotta structure was designed by Alfred S. Eichberg. The Lewis Kayton family built it sometime between 1887 and 1888. The Drayton Chapel -- the first major addition since Fox & Weeks took over the site, was built in 1967. 

Kessler expressed interest in buying the property late last year. 

"I think it'll be a marvelous place to entertain," Weeks said of the proposed hotel. "I think it's going to be a nice, nice project." 

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