Construction halts on ugly hotel in Sylva

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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The Southern Highland Reader has the story:

SYLVA–Construction of a large hotel south of Sylva – once planned as a Sleep Inn, and more recently as a slightly more upscale Clarion Inn – has stopped.

The project’s general contractor recently told county officials that the project had “run out of money,” and that progress halted at the start of the year. The contractor has pulled off the job, and there are no materials on site.

otel met with criticism when construction began last year. Many residents complained that the structure’s prominent location off highway 107, on a ridge silhouetted against the Plott Balsam mountain range, made it an eyesore.

Proponents argued that the service was much needed – especially on the side of town closest to Western Carolina University – and that it was hard to make too much of an argument for aesthetics when the building is flanked by similar commercial structures at a “Wal Mart intersection.”