Retired Cookeville Chamber CEO George Halford said plans for a new downtown hotel could increase high-profile tourism.
Focus groups will begin meeting this week on ideas for the area around the old Wilson plant. It includes a hotel and conference center on the western-most corner of the property. Halford said a hotel would create more meeting spaces for companies to hold conventions or travel in small groups. When companies travel, Halford said, they often stay in upscale hotels that have meeting rooms with around 50 seats.
“We’ve got everything we need except a meeting space I think that would accommodate if people wanted to meet in small groups (companies),” Halford said.
Cookeville does not have many meeting areas, Halford said. He said the new Putnam County Convention Center will add valuable space that could be used in collaboration with a downtown space.
“There’s no substitution for face-to-face personal interaction,” Halford said. “And so companies value that.”
Halford said the downtown residential areas could benefit from the hotel. Halford said downtown residents and hotel guests can both walk to a hub of restaurants in the area.
“If we could continue this in someway, you could pull into your hotel, go to the meeting and go out to eat and never leave downtown,” Halford said.
A hotel project that would have used the majority of the Wilson property fell through several years ago. Halford said that project would have required a large amount of federal funding. Developers ultimately decided not to move forward.
“We were trying to get the developer to build a hotel, too,” Halford said. “And you know our infrastructure down there, water, sewer, flooding, you know, was not kept up obviously.”
Halford said that is an area that will be addressed through this new comprehensive plan.
