Spartanburg Marriott changes ownership

Included: plans to expand

DECEMBER 12, 2010 1:15 p.m. (0)

Spartanburg’s troubled Marriott at Renaissance Park will be under new ownership around Jan. 1 if all of the pieces fall together, said Greenville’s Andrew Cajka, president of Southern Hospitality Group, one of three partners seeking to close the deal.

The property is under contract with Bridgewater Capital Solutions of Atlanta, the current owner of the hotel building. The city owns the 4.7 acres the hotel occupies.

Changes to the city-owned lease with Bridgewater cleared City Council at first reading Monday and a final reading is on track for approval at next week’s meeting. The changes to the lease would enable SMR Hospitality LLC, the new potential owner, to finalize the sale.  Continue reading...

 

Extended Stay? Not so much

Hotel company HQ packs up and moves to Charlotte

APRIL 11, 2011 2:09 p.m. (0)

Extended Stay got state, county and city assistance to move to Spartanburg and eight years later is getting taxpayer help from North Carolina to pack up and move its headquarters to Charlotte.

Disappointed Spartanburg officials say Extended Stay and HVM, the company that runs the motels and employs virtually all of its workers, gave them no chance to keep the headquarters and, further, publicly gave reasons for moving based on thin reeds.

The move is a setback, too, for Spartanburg’s favorite son and benefactor, George Dean Johnson Jr., who was a founder of Extended Stay and brought the motel chain from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to his hometown in 2002 to set in motion revitalization of a crumbling downtown.  Continue reading...

 

Heads in beds numbers improve

Convention business sees a comeback

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 12:09 p.m. (0)

Greenville’s convention business is gradually clawing its way out of the recession but has a way to go before it reaches pre-recession levels, said Todd Bertka, vice president of sales for the Greenville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Back in ’07 we were booking about 45,000 room nights a year,” he said. “In the pits of the recession (2009) we had about 28,000 room nights booked,” he said. “Last year it was up to about 32,000 and we’re on track to book 38,000 this year.”

Greenville is considered a mid-sized market and draws most of its convention business from the state and region, Bertka said. There are about 8,500 hotel rooms available in Greenville County and a slightly lower number in the city, he said.  Continue reading...