
{"id":3906,"date":"2008-11-13T08:15:58","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T16:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2008-11-17T12:24:02","modified_gmt":"2008-11-17T20:24:02","slug":"huge-increase-in-hotel-rooms-on-the-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/11\/13\/huge-increase-in-hotel-rooms-on-the-horizon\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge increase in hotel rooms on the horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/franklinhotelf.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/franklinhotelf-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Ava Barlow. The Franklin, a hotel on West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, has an atrium on the third floor.\" title=\"franklinhotelf\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\" align=\"left\" size-medium wp-image-3905\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/franklinhotelf-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/franklinhotelf.jpg 578w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a><strong>By Rich Fowler<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill-Carrboro area could add as many as 520 hotel rooms to its current 1,052-room inventory in the next few years. Projects have already been approved at 300 East Main in Carrboro and at East 54 in Chapel Hill to add 290 rooms, while projects in various planning stages at Southern Village, Chapel Hill 40 and the Carolina Inn could add another 230 more.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe proposed projects at Southern Village and Chapel Hill 40 will come up before the Chapel Hill Town Council at their meeting on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>Laurie Paolicelli, executive director of the Chapel Hill\/Orange County Visitors Bureau, who keeps a close eye on industry trends, said it will be interesting to see how the area will deal with the expansion in rooms. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a lot of hotels in a short time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something we have to stand back and say as a community, not just as a tourism industry, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCan we support this?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Paolicelli said there has already been a spurt of hotel growth in the area in the last five years and that it has just finished adjusting to that growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at a hotel explosion here of 1,000 rooms to 1,500 rooms, the question is, can we rely on the university exclusively to fill these rooms? And if not, where do we look for new markets? And I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing that we as tourism people here who read the stats every day and look at who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staying and who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, fret about,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She said that some hotels will suffer at first as newer ones open. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Somebody always takes it on the chin\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and then they get more competitive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Nationwide, recent economic woes have hit the hotel industry hard. Soaring gas prices cut a lot of summer vacations short, and as the general economy nosedived in September things didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get much better for the industry.<\/p>\n<p>But in spite of the bad national news, local occupancy rates from January through August were up 0.4 percent, while over the same period national rates were down 2.5 percent and state rates were down 4.5 percent. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Orange County has always been somewhat protected from devastating economic loss, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an intimate university-related higher demographic that comes here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Paolicelli said. <\/p>\n<p>Manish Atma is the principal of Atma Hotel Group, which operates eight hotels in North Carolina, including the Hampton Inn in Chapel Hill on Fordham Boulevard and two more hotels at the intersection of NC 54 and I-40. He isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worried about the fluctuations in the local occupancy rate. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got such a broad segment of branded hotels, that [the data] takes all of that and gives you an average,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You might have a couple of hotels that are really doing badly, but the average comes out decent, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s location-driven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Atma remains optimistic. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Due to cutbacks, we are down; but fundamentally the market is still doing well. The state, I feel, is doing well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Paolicelli is a strong advocate for the tourism industry in Orange County and wants to see it develop further. She said that visitors spend $137 million each year here and local tourism employs around 1,800 people. <\/p>\n<p>She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s optimistic that in the end the surge in guest rooms will work itself out if hotels focus on bringing in new sources of visitors and not on attacking each others\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 customer bases. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153First you have a dip, and then things start leveling out.\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 But the most important thing we have to be careful of is the cannibalistic effect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aloft at East 54<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Representatives of Starwood Hotels, the company that owns the Sheraton and W chains, say the company plans to develop one of its high-end and modern Aloft hotels at East 54 on the corner of South Hamilton and Raleigh roads. Aloft Chapel Hill will be owned by Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. and operated by Barclay Hospitality Services. The Aloft brand is touted as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hip, contemporary environment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Barclay spokesperson Craig Lambert said he thinks the style will be a good match for Chapel Hill: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Aloft brand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fresh perspective is changing the industry as we know it, and we are happy to be able to provide guests and locals of Chapel Hill with the latest alternative in travel.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The company plans to start construction in early 2009 and open in the winter of 2010. The hotel will have 140 rooms, a bar, 600 square feet of meeting space, an outdoor area and a swimming pool. <\/p>\n<p><strong>300 East Main<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Atma Hotel Group will be building a 150-room hotel as part of the 300 East Main development, with rooms priced in the $125 to $150 per night range. It will have 2,500 square feet of conference facilities, which will be able to handle about 200 people. The hotel will have a limited-service restaurant if it becomes a Hilton Garden Inn; but if it becomes a Hampton Inn and Suites, it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n<p>Though the brand  hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been decided, the hotel has drawn criticism from some neighbors and town officials who questioned whether it is a good fit for Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eastern gateway.<\/p>\n<p>Atma said the brand of the hotel will not have a major impact on its look. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It will be a beautiful hotel,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It will be a hotel that the people of Carrboro and also Orange County will be proud of. Even if [it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] a Hampton Inn and Suites, the look of the building is not going to change. The only thing that is going to change is the interior of the building \u00e2\u20ac\u201d how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laid out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nPaolicelli is optimistic about the new hotel. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I only see it doing great things for Carrboro and Chapel Hill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The impact it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to have on Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s local businesses is going to be incredible,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Atma said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because, you have to understand, everyone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staying in this hotel has to go somewhere to eat, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to eat in Carrboro.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He said that construction on the hotel should start sometime in either the second or third quarter of 2009 and should finish by the end of 2010.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Southern Village<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>D.R. Bryan and John Fugo want to build either an 80- to 100-room hotel or condominiums in the parking lot in front of Weaver Street Market in Southern Village. The hotel would be 86,000 square feet, with three stories of rooms and two levels of parking. The plan has met with opposition from residents of Southern Village.<\/p>\n<p>Rosemary Waldorf, project manager for Bryan Properties, said that when she learned from the Visitor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bureau that the average visitor to Chapel Hill spends $286 per day, she was convinced that a hotel would help Southern Village. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You take that and multiply that [by] the number of rooms and 65 percent occupancy \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I was persuaded,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Waldorf said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that a hotel [in Southern Village] really would help the businesses here. I think the challenge is figuring out how to get through the construction period.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Eric Tannery, director of new development for Summit Hospitality Group in Raleigh, said his company is interested in operating a hotel on the site. He said the thinking now is that it would probably be a Hyatt Place hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Tannery said that the hotel would be a select-service hotel that would offer continental breakfast and have some meeting space. He said that if he had to give a rough estimate of the nightly rate, he would put it around $140 to $150, although rates can change with the economy. <\/p>\n<p>Summit operates 14 hotels in North Carolina, including the Residence Inn by Marriott on Erwin Road in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n<p>If the project is approved, Waldorf estimated that construction could start sometime around late 2010 and would take about a year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapel Hill 40<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2007, the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Northern Area Task Force Report called for more mixed-use property, specifically mentioning the need for a hotel in that part of Chapel Hill. John Coley and Bryan, who now own the old VilCom Campus and have renamed it Chapel Hill 40, are interested in the possibility of putting in a hotel there in the future, which would require a change to the zoning ordinance. Their request got a favorable response from the Community Design Commission in June.<\/p>\n<p>Waldorf said that interstate traffic and Carolina North would bring people to a hotel at Chapel Hill 40 as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All bets are off, I think, on when anything new is going to happen in our world today. But assuming that there is some kind of economic recovery, I think a lot of people concur that that use in that location makes a lot of sense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Waldorf said.<\/p>\n<p>She said that while it was too early to say with any certainty what sort of hotel would be there, Bryan Properties\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 early research suggests that they probably need around 100 rooms for the project to be economically feasible. <\/p>\n<p>Waldorf said they were interested in a certain level of quality. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aside from saying it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a Days Inn, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to name any brands, because it would be premature,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Carolina Inn<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Plans for the Carolina Inn to expand are still on the table but won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be going ahead for the next 18 months to two years, according to Mark Nelson, the hotel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s director of sales and marketing. For some time, the hotel has been planning on renovating Whitehead dormitory and converting it into approximately 30 more guest rooms, but current economic conditions are preventing it from moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3961,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions\/3961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}