Delays for the Marriott; developer hopes work can resume by Memorial Day

The Latest Local News from the Rome News

“I’m sitting here just waiting and waiting and waiting, and I’m getting real tired of waiting,” said J.P. Singh, who is trying to raise a Courtyard by Marriott on West Third Street.

“It’s a little bit frustrating. I’ve been getting a lot of questions from everybody,” said the senior vice president and chief development officer for Duke Hospitality, developers of the long awaited hotel.

Changes to the layout of the proposed hotel, including the elimination of a swimming pool and the enhancement of meeting space, have resulted in significant delays in getting structural design documents completed.

With all of the reviews that have to be done after all of the drawings are complete, Singh is hoping to get shovels on the ground prior to Memorial Day.

“The work that has already been done out there has probably put our completion closer to a nine-, 10-month schedule, weather dependent,” Singh said.

He said his structural engineer has a lot of projects on the drawing board and Singh said the Rome project has just waited its turn.

One of the primary problems is that a redesign of the meeting space left a large column in the middle of that area.

“Obviously I don’t want a column in the middle of a meeting room,” Singh said. “They told me they had to do a lot of recalculating because it involved changing the structural layout of that entire side of the building.”

He said the rest of the plans have been completed and are ready to submit to the city for review and Citizens First Bank for final loan financial review.

Singh said the changes have not had a major impact on the projected $12.6 million dollar budget for the hotel.

“My room count is not changing; my overall square footage is not changing, so I think the cost (difference) is actually negligible,” Singh said.

Eliminating a pool on the second floor of the building offsets any increase in cost as a result of changing the meeting space layout.

Lisa Smith, executive director of the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the delay has not caused any major problems for her office.

Rome had hoped to lure a convention of Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs this summer, but that event is headed elsewhere after it became apparent the hotel was not going to be ready in time.

Singh’s got his fingers crossed for grand opening late in the first quarter of 2016.

Source: Rome News

The post Delays for the Marriott; developer hopes work can resume by Memorial Day appeared first on My Web Pal.

from My Web Pal http://ift.tt/1a8uBVg

via http://ift.tt/16tBHl4