Count ’em: 7 Asheville hotels announced or being built now, with rumors of 3 more

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Jason Sandford

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

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bbt_marriott_2014With the leaves changing and fall in full effect here in Asheville, it is officially tourist season. So why not update the count on plans for new Asheville hotels. As far as I can tell, this is an unprecedented boom in Asheville hotel construction adding up to tens of millions of dollars in new investment, jobs and tourist spending.

Here’s my running tally of the new hotels either under construction or planned for downtown Asheville and close surroundings:

Downtown Asheville

-Haywood Street at the intersection of Montford Avenue: This location is the former Three Brothers restaurant site. This will be a Hyatt Place hotel, shown above. Construction is well underway.

-Corner of College Street and South Charlotte Street: The Hilton Garden is a proposed 7-story, 108,220-square-foot hotel. The site is known as 311 College St. Demolition of the old T.K. Tripps restaurant was recently completed.

-BB&T building: There are plans for two hotels to be built on the BB&T property. The first 120-room hotel will go up at the corner of College and Broadway, where an old parking deck sits now. Demolition on that deck is set to start in January. That location will be flagged as a AC by Marriott hotel. Once construction is complete, crews will begin renovating the BB&T structure to include a 150-room boutique hotel.

-Corner of Page Avenue and Battery Park Avenue: Tony Fraga, the owner of the Haywood Park Hotel, has unveiled plans to build a Cambria Suites hotel on the site.

Unconfirmed downtown hotel possibilities

-There are rumors of new boutique hotel planned for this location on Market Street in downtown Asheville.

-196 Patton Ave: Last year, a hotel owner bought this old warehouse and adjacent vacant lot. There are no announced construction plans.

-Elm Street off Merrimon Avenue: A Greensboro-based company that owns and operates hotels has purchased a parcel of property at 39 Elm St. The location is next to the 51 Grill on Merrimon Avenue, and is known to many as the old location of a Steak and Ale restaurant. More recently, is was La Caterina Trattoria restaurant.

South of downtown Asheville

-I recently took note of the planned demolition of the old Howard Johnson motel on Hendersonville Road. A spokesman for the property told me a couple weeks ago that a new Holiday Inn hotel was to be built on the location. Now there’s confirmation, from the September agenda of the Asheville Technical Review Committee. The plan is to build a 6-story, 76,276-square-foot hotel on the spot.

-Biltmore Estate: The Biltmore Estate this week confirmed its plans to move ahead with the construction of a new hotel on its property.

West Asheville

-Bledsoe Building: Word on the street is that the second floor of the historic Bledsoe Building will be turned into a boutique hotel, in the style of the popular Ace Hotel chain. This is unconfirmed.

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Jason Sandford

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

  • 1

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11 Comments

  1. Jami October 7, 2014

    Isn’t there also rumour of one where the Downtown Market is? (Was?)

    Reply
  2. orulz October 3, 2014

    The Technical Review Committee agenda from September 15th (linked above) also includes a rezoning request for “Biltmore Village Apartments” on Fairview Road just outside of Biltmore Village. It is about 14 acres, and is zoned for 64 units per acre, so this could be absolutely enormous.

    Reply
    1. hauntedheadnc October 4, 2014

      I’m going to guess that’s the plot of land on Fairview just at the point where that road starts to go uphill. It’s zoned for an urban village. Maybe they’ll build downtown Oakley there or something.

      Reply
  3. Kevin October 3, 2014

    why stay at a hotel when my 3br house is half the price to you leaf lookers

    Reply
  4. huh October 3, 2014

    The current hotel building boom will be this City Council’s legacy.

    Reply
    1. Former Reporter at WYPN October 3, 2014

      That’s highly ironic considering they have nothing to do with it.

      Reply
  5. AVL LVR October 2, 2014

    Good, build more! Hotels are expensive here. A few more will help drive down prices.

    Reply
    1. cwaster October 3, 2014

      Actually, that’s a good idea. Too bad we can’t do that with power companies.

      Reply
      1. AVL LVR October 3, 2014

        WNC could use more hydroelectric dams like TVA has in East Tennessee. Their energy rates are a lot lower than ours. Dams are great! They lower energy costs, provide power, serve as reservoirs, and boost recreation & tourism (lake cottages & resorts). I would like our own Lake District (maybe in Madison, Yancey, & Mitchell counties).

        Reply
        1. River October 4, 2014

          Where do you propose these new dams and lakes? Many more rivers are dammed than not in this area: the Tuckaseegee, Little Tennesee, Green, Chattooga, Nantahala, Cheoah, Rocky Broad, Catawba come to mind as power-generating rivers. The French Broad isn’t feasible, that doesn’t leave much else. TVA’s network was created in a much different era. I just don’t see it happening.

          Reply
  6. Barry Summers October 2, 2014

    Thank the Gods. Any less than 10 new hotels in the works, and we all die shivering in the dark.

    Reply

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