Third time’s the charm? Developer brings plans for downtown hotel project to Albany Commission

ALBANY – Albany city commissioners got their first look Monday at a proposed downtown hotel and branding project with a major market chain.

A representatives of Woodmont Lodging, based in Bethesda, Md., presented renderings and drawings of plans to turn the former Water, Gas & Light building on Pine Avenue in Albany into a Marriott brand hotel, and the former Rosenberg Brothers Department Store/Albany Herald building into a hotel and extended-stay development.

Elliott Estes, founder and principal for Woodmont Lodging, and members of his design team revealed the plans during a joint meeting with the Albany City Commission and the Albany Downtown Development Authority. The principals involved in the project met with community stakeholders before the city meeting to get input on the project.

Plans are for branding the hotel as a Marriott Tribute, the mid-market boutique designation for the brand.

In order to proceed with the plans, the company needs to have ownership of the properties located at 205-207 Pine Ave. and 126 N. Washington St.

In April the city loaned the company $600,000 to develop architectural plans and get a guaranteed maximum price for project construction. So far, that money has been used to produce a boundary and topography survey, engage a branding expert to provide a preliminary review and produce drawings, Estes told the group.

The concept is for the Water, Gas & Light building to be transformed into The Gordon, with 80 rooms, and the second building as Herald House, with larger rooms and kitchenettes for travelers staying for a week or longer.

“What we’re trying to do is come in and learn the history, and more importantly where Albany is headed,” Matt Zuena, managing principal for ZDS Architecture & Interiors, said.”’The Gordon’ is more of a story than just a hotel.”

The idea is for mystery and intrigue, such as The Bellyard in Atlanta, he said.

“We’re hanging onto the name Herald because we think it has history,” Zuena added.

Many of the historic elements of the former Herald building will be preserved, including the first-floor lobby and mezzanine area.

The two buildings could provide an opportunity for workforce training and entrepreneurship for Albany State University and Albany Technical College students, Estes said. 

“Who we place in there will drive the direction of the project,” he said. “The project is very financable. It’s been proven time and time again to be feasible.

“When you talk about workforce opportunities, you’re often talking about culinary arts. It was very important to me that the students and residents of Albany have arts opportunities (performances) as well. The goal is to make sure our arts are celebrated.”

The development would bring up to 65 jobs, 94% of which would come with wages of more than $21 an hour and more than 50% of which would pay more than $25 per hour, Estes said. Top positions could pay in the $55,000 to $65,000 range.

Woodmont is the third development company to make a stab at the project after the first two efforts fizzled.

After hearing from the officials, the city commissioners and DDA members met in a closed session to discuss real estate. No decision was made during that session.

Prior to the joint commission/DDA meeting, Estes and members of his project team – Albany-based contractor Glenn Singfield with Artesian Construction, Matthew Certo with Findsome & Winmore, a Florida design/branding agency; Brian LaBrie with the Atlanta-based consulting agency Ray, Ellis & LaBrie; and Zuena, the managing principal of Rhode Island-based ZDS Architecture and Interiors – met with community members to discuss possibilities for the project.

“I was drawn here by the opportunity,” Estes, whose Woodmont Lodging is located in Virginia, said at the gathering. “And during the ongoing process, I’ve become a believer.

“Southwest Georgia needs for Albany to be strong,  and unless we do this project now, these two assets will be in danger of turning into snowglobes.”

Estes and his team members discussed specific issues of the proposed project and allowed community stakeholders to offer comments and ask questions during the lunch meeting, held at Artesian’s West Roosevelt Avenue offices.

Singfield said the community at large – and perhaps some Albany leaders – have not fully grasped the impact the project can have on Albany.

“We have to embrace this project; we all must become drum majors to lead it through the process,” Singfield said. “We have an honest developer in place, and he’s put together a good team. I think everyone involved wants this project to be successful.”

Certo said plans for The Gordon – the working title for the former hotel/utilities building – and Herald House, the former Rosenberg’s Department Store that served as home of The Albany Herald for more than three decades, are based on development of a full-service boutique, lifestyle hotel.

“If you want to call them our ‘competition.’ hotels like the St. Nicholas, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Courtyard/Fairfield cluster of facilities in northwest Albany, and the Merry Acres Inn, are among the hotels whose customers we’ll be after,” Certo said. “But we plan to offer experiences that none of the others can. And we’re not trying to take away those hotels’ customer base. Just two or three guests at each one.

Estes said the Gordon would be more like a proper hotel, although not one common in Albany and southwest Georgia. Planned amenities include various meeting spaces, areas that would host entertainers, extended bar areas for people who want to “have a drink, hold a meeting, smoke a cigar or just relax,” a terrace offering access to outdoors dining and al fresco dining in an area along Pine Avenue..

Herald House would provide opportunities for travelers who are more interested in an extended stay, like traveling nurses.

Zuena said the renderings and plans shown at the meeting are his team’s “first pass at the project’s design,” and added that the scope of the project would depend on the eventual approval of a working budget.

“We’re drawing on the Southern culture of this community in our design work,” he said. “As for these finishes, we’ve put together our renderings based on the best materials available. Once the budget is set, we’ll make changes or value engineer to meet budget standards.”

Estes, who said his wife Maia’s long-ago relationship with community leaders like Charles and Shirley Sherrod drew his interest. And since coming here, he’s become engaged with the community.

“Coming here was not my idea,” he said. “My partner saw the RFP (request for proposals), and because of Maia’s ties to the city, I looked further into it. And now I am fully committed. I’m excited about what we can do together.”

Singfield said he’s stoked about the possibility of bringing a “life-altering” facility to the city he’s grown to love.

“We’ve got what we need in place to make this work,” he said. “But we need a total buy-in. I don’t know if the community at large and even some of our officials understand the impact this project can have on Albany, Georgia. If we don’t make this work, we’re giving away our future.”

And Estes assures all involved that he’s prepared to make the project work.

“Look, I’m not going to tell you I can do something when I can’t,” he said. “But I can do this.”