STATE

New Hyatt Place, other hotels will be economic boon for Classic Center and Athens

Jim Thompson
Rendering of the planned Hyatt Place on Thomas Street at The Classic Center.

The Classic Center, downtown Athens' public convention and performance space, is already getting event bookings based on the new Hyatt Place hotel now under construction at the center, even though the hotel is not slated to open until the spring of next year.

Maureen Baker, director of sales at The Classic Center, wouldn't say exactly what events are coming to the facility as a result of now having an attached hotel, but she did say it has been a catalyst for business.

"Once people see it [a hotel] coming up out of the ground, they get interested," Baker said.

Word that the Hyatt Place on Thomas Street at The Classic Center was well on its way toward its spring completion date got a significant boost recently, Baker said, when the Georgia Society of Association Executives met at The Classic Center. That group is particularly important, Baker explained, because its members have a voice in deciding where and when their respective groups will hold their meetings and conventions.

According to Baker, The Classic Center has been in negotiations with groups that plan to use the facility for their meetings after the Hyatt Place is completed.

In other comments Thursday, Baker echoed a point made frequently by Paul Cramer, The Classic Center's executive director, that an attached hotel helps the facility book larger conventions and events than has previously been the case.

Cramer said having an attached hotel has become an industry standard in the convention business, and Baker noted Thursday the Hyatt Place will add to the local inventory of hotel rooms, which can serve to bring larger events to The Classic Center.

The Hyatt Place will provide 192 hotel rooms at The Classic Center, and will bring the total number of rooms within a mile of The Classic Center to 1,400, according to a news release issued this week through the Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The news release goes on to note that, as previously reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, a Homewood Suites by Hilton slated for an East Broad Street location at the edge of The Classic Center campus adds more than 120 rooms to the local inventory, and a SpringHill Suites hotel adds another 200 rooms at the corner of Hull and West Broad streets just a half-mile from The Classic Center. A little farther out, near the intersection of West Broad Street and Milledge Avenue, an expansion project at the Best Western hotel, which will transform it into a Best Western Plus, adds 54 hotel rooms in Athens. Still farther west, on Atlanta Highway a couple of miles from the downtown area, a 95-room Fairfield Inn will be built adjacent to an existing Howard Johnson hotel.

All told, according to the CVB news release, these projects boost Athens' hotel inventory to 3,012 rooms.

Touting the construction of the Hyatt Place in the news release, Cramer said, "Since 1995, The Classic Center has continued to grow and expand, and we are now able to host groups of up to 6,000, doubling our capacity in 2013. Having the expanded facility and close proximity to 1,400 hotel rooms makes Athens one of the premier meeting destinations in the state."

The nine-story Hyatt Place includes three meeting rooms and a board room, along with a full restaurant, rooftop and lobby bars, and a 200-space parking deck.

"The fact that our hotel is not only connected to The Classic Center but also in the midst of vibrant downtown Athens gives it an exceptionally broad appeal that is indeed remarkable," Andrew Cajka, partner and president of Southern Hospitality Group, which will manage the downtown Hyatt Place, said in the CVB news release.

Robert Small, one of the owners of the Hyatt Place, called the hotel "a missing link in the local tourism infrastructure."

Chuck Jones, director of the CVB, used the news release to note "Athens has become a stronger market for business travel, leisure trips and conventions, and we've definitely seen the need for more hotel rooms downtown."

Looking at the totality of the hotel room inventory being developed in Athens, Jones said, "With this series of new hotel openings, Athens will benefit from new jobs, increased spending at our local restaurants and retailers and increased local sales and property tax collections ... ." The CVB's "marketing efforts over the next several years will be focused on filling the increased hotel capacity in our city," Jones added.