Roy Carroll, the owner of the Carroll Companies, with the help of his wife Vanessa, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Zack Matheny cut the ribbon to officially open the Hyatt Place hotel downtown on the corner of Bellemeade and North Eugene streets.
The Hyatt Place has been open for business since March 15 when it had what was described by one hotel executive as a “soft, soft opening.”
It may have been a soft opening, but enough people have known the hotel was open that according to Carroll it is setting records for a new Hyatt Place and is the number one new Hyatt Place in the country this year. Carroll said since it opened they have had over 8,000 guests and done over $1 million in business.
He said that planning and building the hotel was a team effort and thanked the team that had worked so hard to get the hotel open for business this spring. And he thanked the Greensboro City Council for closing part of Lindsay Street to make the Carroll Bellemeade development possible.
Carroll Bellemeade also includes 300 apartments some still under construction on North Eugene and Bellemeade streets.
Carroll said this was the first of three hotels he had in the works and said, “This is just the start of many grand openings we plan to do.”
It was a noisy grand opening because they the land across the street was being graded for the Slugger office building. Carroll said he was asked if he wanted them to pause the work during the ceremony, but he said, “I told them no. I’m used to talking over construction and that’s the sound of progress.”
Vaughan noted that it was the first new hotel built downtown in over 30 years and said because of Carroll’s vision and willingness to get out in front that there would be more hotels to follow. She also noted that this was just the first phase of development along North Eugene Street with Slugger being built across the street and then the $140 million Carroll South of the Ballpark development with construction to start as early as next year.
One fun fact that Vaughan mentioned is that there is a photo taken by Carroll in every guest room in the hotel. She said that was a talent she didn’t know he had.
Matheny thanked the Carroll family for their continued investment in Greensboro. And as a former city councilmember who knows something about what economic development means for a community, Matheny noted that before the hotel was built the piece of property on the corner was paying about $5,000 a year in property taxes and now the property tax bill alone is about $120,000.
The Hyatt Place has 108 rooms, a restaurant, coffee shop, bar/lounge, meeting rooms, a fitness center and a second floor pool that overlooks the ball park. The pool area is not only a great place to catch some of a Grasshoppers game, but from there you have a great view of the fireworks after the game.
