Putnam County negotiating with a developer to bring a four-to-five-star hotel to the Tennessee Avenue exit to support the new Expo Center and Convention Center.
Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said the county has been working for approximately three years to secure a hotel developer for the area. Porter said the Putnam County Commission recently passed a resolution granting him the authority to negotiate the specific size and details of the project with a developer.
“We just have to be patient,” Porter said. “You know, these things take time, it just depends on the project, whether it’s a hotel or it’s a new company coming in. We’re at their mercy, at the pace that they go in.”
Porter said the proposed project is currently being referred to by a project name to maintain confidentiality in a competitive market. Porter said the facility is expected to feature between 100 and 150 rooms and will ideally be located on a parcel of property directly in front of the Expo Center.
“We’ve been negotiating trying to get a hotel in that area for the new Expo Center and the Convention Center to be to have a hotel that folks can spend the night in and then go to their conference or whatever it is,” Porter said. “We feel like that increases the number of conferences and so forth that would come and be at our facility.”
Porter said the developer is currently working to secure financing and finalize agreements with specific hotel chains. Porter said the project could include amenities such as a coffee shop and up to two restaurants that would be open to the general public.
“We already have a shortage of hotel rooms in Putnam County and on any given weekend, most of them are booked,” Porter said. “And so this will add another 100 or 150 rooms to the list. Then this hotel, like I said, four or five-star hotel will have at least one, maybe two restaurants in it that would be open to the public. Probably a coffee shop or a coffee place could be open to the public.”
Porter said the presence of a high-end hotel is expected to stimulate further economic development along the interstate and Tennessee Avenue. Porter said the county previously issued a Request for Information to identify interested developers before beginning the current negotiations.
“My guess is if we know something by the end of the year, we’ll be doing good,” Porter said. “It’s a multi-month process. My guess is it’ll be sometime in the first of the year before we’ll be making an announcement. But it may go faster than what I think it will.”
Porter said an official announcement regarding the hotel chain and a potential groundbreaking could occur between the end of this year and next spring.
