SAVANNAH | Development News Thread

[bigstick]

I was in Savannah last week, and Savannah is booming...

[DetroitMan]

State to build hotel next to Savannah Convention Center

The state authority behind the Savannah Convention Center finally has an answer to that question. Construction crews are nearing completion on a $276 million convention center expansion that will double the venue’s capacity and make it the 71st largest convention center in the country. Yet as the Jan. 10 opening approaches, an adjacent site reserved for what tourism officials call a “vital” 400-room hotel remains untouched.

On Thursday, the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority announced plans to build the hotel in partnership with two developers, including Atlanta-based Songy Highroads. According to the authority’s chairman, Mark V. Smith, convention center officials will work with hotel group Hilton and financial firm Citicorp on financing for the property. The authority plans to issue tax-exempt bonds that will be sold to third-party private properties to raise revenue for the project. The estimated cost is more than $200 million, Smith said.

The date for a hotel groundbreaking and a construction timeline are still to be determined.

The move comes after a developer, Brookfield Properties, reneged in June on an agreement to build the convention center hotel, citing financing issues. Brookfield already owns the 403-room Westin Savannah Harbor, located next to the convention center on the opposite side of the exhibit hall from the would-be new hotel’s location.“It is critical to protect the investment of over half a billion in state and local funding by delivering a supporting hotel,” said Smith, a veteran of Savannah’s hotel industry. “Recent turmoil in the credit markets led us to the conclusion that we must build the new hotel ourselves.”

Convention-related business is an economic driver for cities, even in a leisure tourism destination such as Savannah. Tourism leaders say conventions are particularly important to the visitor economy because they attract business on weekdays while leisure tourism is focused on the weekends. The Savannah Convention Center has generated an estimated $1.4 billion economic impact since its 2000 opening.

https://www.savannahnow.com/story/ne...r/71341178007/