Marriott deadline set for March 2
City commissioners also sign off on plans for The Spires and the historic Hoyt property.
Teams training at FM Global Emergency Response Consultants’ 328acre center off Ga. 100 spend a combined 12,000 nights or so a year in area hotels.
Most of them stay outof-county, but that’s set to change when the new Courtyard by Marriott opens on West Third Street.
“They just signed an agreement with us,” said Wesley Dowdy, president of Duke Hospitality. “They’re going to put all their business on the books with us, starting in February or March.”
The Rome City Commission unanimously extended to March 2, 2018, the Dec. 31 deadline set in order for the hotel to get a property tax break. Dowdy said Monday he expects to have a certificate of occupancy by Feb. 1, since there’s not much left to do but hang 362 doors.
“The carpet is down, the wall vinyl is up, the furniture is in,” he told the board.
The doors were supposed to be delivered last week, he said, but won’t arrive until early in the week of Jan. 8. It will take two or three weeks to install them all.
Commissioners said the $14.6 million hotel — across the street from Barron Stadium and across the river from the downtown district — would be a valuable addition to the city.
The board also praised The Spires at Berry College, a $130 million continuing care community they signed off on by approving an annexation and two rezonings.
Berry attorney Danny Price said they expect to break ground in late spring or early summer.
The complex, built around the old rock quarry on Berry property, will have a four-story independent living building with 155 apartments. There also will be a fourstory lodge, with 17 apartments, and 16 cottages.
Residents will be able to transition to the healthcare facility, which will have 36 memory care suites on the first floor; 35 skilled nursing suites on the second floor; 18 assisted living apartments on the third floor and the same number on the fourth.
As a nonprofit “home for the aged,” the 77-acre site would be tax-exempt. However, Price said a 19acre piece of “leftover” land along Redmond Circle would be marketed for commercial use.
In other actions Monday, the city commission:
Gave City Manager Sammy Rich high marks in his annual review. Mayor Jamie Doss announced Rich’s base salary
would be adjusted to $147,500. “I did tell Sammy his job will not be getting any easier,” he said with a laugh.
Approved a 5-year extension of its probation services contract with Supervision Services Inc. City Clerk Joe Smith said probationers’ monthly fee would rise to $38 from $35 but still remains short of the state cap of $45.
Approved a request to withdraw plans for a recreational vehicle park
on Black’s Bluff Road. The motion of “without prejudice” means Gene and Tamara Suites could resubmit their application in six months instead of waiting at least a year.
Approved Urban Mixed Use zoning for the old Hoyt property at 603 W. First St., to allow a building with 12 townhomes of varying sizes. The Historical Preservation Commission has oversight of the building’s architectural design of the building.