New Hotel Scheduled To Break Ground in Downtown Decatur Later This Year
Decatur Metro | August 10, 2016 | 4:16 pm
The AJC reports that construction on a new hotel in downtown Decatur should begin later this year. According to the site, Vision Hospitality has filed a land disturbance permit to construct a 7-story “Hampton Suites” next to the Courtyard by Marriott on Clairemont Ave. Did they mean a Hampton Inn & Suites?
Plans for a new hotel at the site have floated around since 2014, but it sounds like things are finally getting under way.
Old photo of the site courtesy of Parker Cross
NO.
Yes!
OUI!
Si!
That sucks. What a cheapskate hotel instead of a boutique.
Don’t get your blue blood boiled now. It’ll be priced about the same as the Marriott and the poors won’t be able to afford it.
The poors?
There are plenty of small/boutique hotels that are just as, if not more, affordable than a lot of national chains these days. I wouldn’t assume that this comment was in regards to the hotel price-point, but the hotel chain itself.
He said “cheapskate” so if he wasn’t referring to price point then he really needs to get a dictionary 😉
Yeah, but that’s not what he meant to say. You and the mainstream media just want to focus on every little word. Doesn’t matter anyway… you’re just part of the DM elite.
There’s a press release and sketch from the developer here that they put out in May:
http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4075991.html
I enjoy seeing travelers rolling bags to and from Mariott to Marta. Reminds me of Europe.
Welcome Vision Hospitality!!!
So the idea that this was going to be a boutique hotel was just a rumor?
The only thing I ever heard or saw was a Hampton like the announcement.
Not really related, but remember when I fell for that Decatur CD pub April Fool’s joke? Maybe we should start a Brick Store hotel rumor.
What a memory you have, DM! I don’t recall even taking that photo.
I had to go back to the old post a remind myself. You know I have a terrible memory!
So sad. One of the nicest green spaces in the city.
I live downtown in the vibrant, euro feeling city and am getting choked by recent development. It is not balanced by fresh air producing green spaces. Our air quality is getting worse. The desirable is becoming undesirable. I invite any of our City Leaders to come spend a few nights in Downtown to actually understand what these decisions are doing to quality of life in our beloved Decatur..
I don’t think any of our commissioners, or city staff, are strangers to downtown Decatur. As for declining air quality, I think you’re probably mistaken. I walk through downtown twice, everyday, on the way to my Ponce de Leon Office and then back home, and have never once gasped for want of oxygen.
I think that new hotel is going to a real benefit to the city, and to the overburdened taxpayers who live here.
Adding a hotel downtown will make it more vibrant, more “euro feeling.” It will help to provide demand for more and better retail options. It adds eyes on the street at various hours to help with safety. It’s a use that the market is telling us we need more of. And, a big one, it adds to our commercial tax base, which is woefully low compared to our residential tax base, which means homeowners are currently over-burdened as compared to comparable cities.
I am continually flabbergasted by people that move downtown and then expect that no more development occur. Downtowns, by their very nature, are the locations in which we expect higher density development to occur. Downtowns drive the local economy. Downtowns are where the action is. Downtowns are made to grow. A growing downtown is good for the entire city. I want to see downtown continue to grow and continue to thrive. This hotel will help that. Why would you move downtown and expect that nothing there will change?
Jo
I lived downtown for almost two years, leaving in late 2014. Loved it and what is being developed in downtown Decatur is exactly what we as the community planned for downtown. We’ve also enjoyed the recent discussions on looking at opportunities for downtown green space. So I personally feel downtown Decatur is on a very good path and a great place to live.
You may be correct Warren but we certainly are no longer where Mayberry meets Berkeley, the funky Decatur of 20 years ago is no longer replaced by a density developed town center where the action is, oh yea very nice Warren
20 years ago we were 15 years into implementing a long-term downtown vision. Now we’re 35 years in. It’s the same vision it’s been since it was adopted by the community in 1982. There’s never been any suggestion that the way it was in 1997 was the point at which we’d freeze it in amber and call it a day.
We will never be the euro that everyone wants until we learn that you can’t have more density and more cars.
While I’m happy to see another hotel added to our downtown area I am sad to lose the trees and green space especially considering that there are still parking lots or underdeveloped sites in downtown that would not be missed.
I’m thankful for the property owners that they maintained such a nice green space for so many years. I’ll be sad to see it go, but I am very glad to see a new hotel added to our community for all the reasons highlighted by Warren above. That site’s proximity to MARTA makes it especially suited to a hotel.
Sure it would be cool to have an independent or boutique hotel, but that is not likely right now. Those kinds of operations appeal to a minority of guests, which means they need a strong established lodging demand for a boutique to be viable. Decatur is definitely not there yet.
And just to poke the bear (not directed at you necessarily Keith)… our city’s minimal commercial taxbase means we can’t afford to carve off a large lot for a downtown park. I’d like to see new development incorporate green space. I’d also support any downtown community fund raisers to build a park with private funds. But I do not want the city to invest limited funds to take another lot off the commercial tax roles.