Part of North Augusta's Walnut Village, Tru Hotel expected to open in October

Apr. 18—A bit of hospitality real estate in North Augusta has been in development for six years, but its full, four-story height now has high visibility north of I-20. Tru Hotel by Hilton is expected to open in October.

The $16 million project has been part of the Exit 5 vision since at least 2017 when the first concept plans reached North Augusta planning commissioners.

Tru Hotel is part of the larger Walnut Village mixed-use development begun under the direction of Meybohm Realty on just over 50 acres between Austin Graybill Road and Walnut Lane.

Aiken Regional's freestanding ER, which opened in August of last year; and self-storage company Your Storage, which opened last month, are part of Walnut Village.

Its townhomes are also complete — and completely sold.

Local developer Blackston & Associates bought the rights to the project's northside lots and over the past couple of years, the Retreat at Walnut Village emerged. Though only recently completed (the last townhomes went up in 2022), every one of the units has been sold to individual owners, property records show.

Another 18.5 acres directly south of the Retreat, just behind the commercial lots, will eventually be built up as apartments.

It's the only section of Walnut Village that hasn't gotten started.

Jordan Collier, with Meybohm's West Augusta office, said the hold-up on developing the apartments has been that they're trying to get a traffic signal installed at Stephens Farm Lane, a lengthy and analysis-heavy process that Collier said has already been underway for a couple of years.

But when the approvals do come, then the remaining street infrastructure can be laid for the apartments.

Collier said the idea is to connect via an internal network the two spurs of Northridge Drive (the one, off Walnut Lane; the other, off Edgefield Road). This internal network will then exit onto Edgefield Road through the Food Lion parking lot.

Recent activity at Walnut Village has been on its higher-visibility lots that run along Austin Graybill Road and that are being developed for commercial use.

Three of the six parcels there are either complete or soon to be complete: Your Storage, Aiken Regional's ER at Sweetwater and Tru Hotel.

Collier said the remaining sites are likely to fill out as professional spaces: consulting services, CPAs, legal or medical offices; whatever can fill the gap in "what is in demand but what is not available," he said.

Aiken Regional's parent company, Universal Health Services, bought the 2.72-acre corner lot adjacent to the ER for $775,000 last September, property records show. A standalone primary care facility is likely.

The other two lots, one of them almost 3.5 acres and the other one just over 2 acres, are still on the market.

They're also ready to build. Infrastructure is in place. So, too the curb cuts and access roads. "It's just ready for somebody to draw a building on it," Collier said.

Tru Hotel: Tabled 18 months but back on track

Jay Ham, senior vice president of development for the Raines Company, said he's confident that once it opens, Tru Hotel will attract business to the remaining commercial lots at Walnut Village.

"It's already developing some leads for us," he said.

Like the larger project it's a part of, development of the 98-room Tru Hotel got started in 2017. Like the apartments, there's been some hold-up: the whole thing was tabled for about 18 months because of the pandemic.

"It was all hands on deck just to keep the ones we have on track," said Ham.

The Raines Company is a hospitality development, investment and management firm based in Florence, S. Car.; and Ham said all new builds pretty much halted in March of 2020.

The hotel has also had its share of supply chain troubles and come up against the rising cost of materials and labor post-pandemic, he said.

But the past few months have shown just how quickly things can get going again. Clearly seen from the interstate, it was a sudden jolt to the skyline when the framing went up, that sharply angled ship's prow of the Tru Hotel brand the most noticeable of anything.

Grovetown's Clark Construction and Charlotte's ODA Architects have paired with Raines on the project. Their portfolios show that both have extensive experience in developing hotels, and Ham said it's helped keep this one on track now that construction has resumed.

"We're excited to get this open. North Augusta is a bullish market for us," he said.

And once open, the hotel will start contributing to North Augusta's growing tourism sector. The 2% statewide accommodations tax levied on all overnight stays in South Carolina comes back to the cities whose hotels generate it. That money gets reinvested in projects or marketing campaigns that support local tourism.

Even though North Augusta lost a hotel in 2021 — the historic Rosemary Inn closed to the public at the end of that year — the amount of accommodations tax collected in North Augusta has grown by 450% between 2017 and 2021 and should only continue to grow with more rooms becoming available for overnight stays.