Just a few months ago, says Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel, a proposed Tax Increment Financing district for the proposed Courtyard Marriott downtown would have sailed through the Metro Council.
But last week, the Metro Council dealt a potentially fatal blow to the plans of South Carolina development firm Windsor Aughtry to develop the 146-room hotel, when it rejected the creation of the TIF help finance the project.
“Why the developer’s attorneys didn’t push for the TIF back then, when the project had the momentum, is a good question for another day,” writes Riegel in her latest column. “But they didn’t, and in the months since, a couple of significant things happened in the downtown hotel market.”
For one, says Riegel, at the time of their announcement last fall, Windsor Aughtry had what appeared to be the upper hand in a race with local developer Mike Wampold to put a Marriott on Third Street.
“Both developers had been vying for a Courtyard franchise—Windsor Aughtry for its vacant parking lot, Wampold for his historic LNB Building one block away. Windsor Aughtry was the winner,” she writes. “Since then, however, Wampold has turned the tables on his out-of-state competition, snagging from Marriott a prestigious Autograph flag, which is a more upscale brand in the Marriott family.”
Riegel says what has also changed in the market since last fall is the total number of downtown hotel rooms. When the Courtyard was announced, it was touted as the hotel that would bring downtown to the coveted 1000-room threshold, which will supposedly enable the city to attract all sorts of new convention business.
“But a new downtown Holiday Inn Express opened earlier this month, adding 88 rooms to the market, and work has already begun on Wampold’s 148-room Watermark,” she writes. “Together, they’ll give downtown more than 1,000 rooms—and that’s not counting the Courtyard.”
Read the full column. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
