Luxury hotel could be coming to downtown Raleigh to support convention center
A big, luxury hotel could be coming to downtown Raleigh to boost the number of hotel rooms near the Raleigh Convention Center.
Omni Hotels & Resorts was picked as the “preferred developer” for city-owned land that could become a 550-room hotel with rooftop pool, spa, five food and beverage outlets, two ballrooms and meeting space, said Kerry Painter, director and general manager of the Raleigh Convention and Performing Arts Complex.
“The beauty of a Raleigh hotel is that it will reflect Raleigh,” she said. “Omni makes every hotel look different. We won’t look like Nashville. We won’t look like Boston. We will look like Raleigh because they will design it to reflect where it sits. And so that, for us, is a wonderful curated iconic moment.”
The hotel, which would also have 55,000 square feet of meeting space, could open in 2027, the city said in a news release. It would become the third Omni hotel site in North Carolina, following hotels in Asheville and Charlotte.
The 1-acre site is zoned for up to 40 stories and currently houses one of two parking lots at the end of Fayetteville Street in front of the Martin Marietta Performing Arts Center. The other city-owned lot will become a residential and mixed-use development.
The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to spend $400,000 to begin negotiating with Omni. The final deal will require another council vote. Painter could not say how long negotiations might last.
Funding would partly come from tourism money, which includes hotel occupancy taxes and prepared food and beverage taxes. The downtown hotel and parking infrastructure were awarded $6 million a year for 20 years
City Manager Marchell Adams-David called the hotel “an opportunity to change the trajectory of downtown.”
Lost Convention Center business
Raleigh began looking for a hotel to complement the Raleigh Convention Center in early 2020 but paused the search during the COVID-19 pandemic as the hospitality industry struggled.
From 2018 to 2020, the Raleigh Convention Center estimates, 45% of its lost business was due to lack of hotel rooms. A report showed Raleigh had fewer hotel rooms within walking distance of its convention center than Tampa, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, Nashville and Austin, among other cities.
In 2022, the City Council decided it was time to start the search again.
The city sought proposals from hoteliers and selected Omni as its preferred developer. The News & Observer requested a copy of Omni’s proposal late Tuesday night and asked how many other proposals were submitted.
“We are thrilled to be joining the downtown community in Raleigh and are inspired by its continued economic growth,” Kurt Alexander, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts, said in a news release. “It is an honor to be entrusted by the City of Raleigh to develop and manage this property while forging unique and authentic connections with the local community.”
