By JOHN SWEENEY
Published: June 10, 2011
A “game changer” — that’s what one investor called the possible development of a $5.6 million boutique hotel in the city’s historic downtown.
According to a letter obtained by the Morning News on Friday from Florence Mayor Stephen J. Wukela to Florence County Council Chairman K.G. “Rusty” Smith Jr. and County Administrator Richard Starks, the city is proposing an incentive package to bring a 53-bed hotel and restaurant with a 180 seating capacity to the old Cosmos building at 126 W. Evans St.
The letter said the venture would bring an estimated 100 jobs to the area and “provide a powerful catalyst for further investment” to downtown Florence.
“This is a risky venture, but we think the time is right and, again, this is something that can really change the game,” attorney Ben Zeigler, one of the project’s principal investors, said.
Zeigler, along with architect Randy Key as well as the Pearce Land Co. LLC have partnered with Raines Development Group, which is a Florence-based holding company specializing in development, operation and management of Marriott-branded select service hotels, and local restaurateur Tim Norwood have negotiated with Florence city officials for six weeks on the hotel deal.
The deal outlined in Wukela’s letter asks Florence County to create a multi-county business park that would allow the county to offer “special source revenue tax credits” to the hotel project for seven years.
The letter said the total net taxes produced by the proposed deal would generate $87,000 with almost $20,000 of that going to the county based on 2010 millage levels.
“The city believes that this project is of critical strategic importance to the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts,” Wukela’s letter said.
According to an official with the city of Florence close to the deal, the city and county councils do not plan on tackling additional facets of the arrangement until the start of the new fiscal year in July.
The hotel project would include moving the popular Florence restaurant Victor’s — of which Norwood is a majority owner — from its present location at 1247 S. Irby St. to the ground floor of the West Evans Street hotel.
With frontage on Evans and close proximity to the Florence City-County Complex, Francis Marion’s Performing Arts Center and the new Florence Museum of Art, Science and History, the building is in a prime location.
“It’s got a lot of aspects we thought leant itself to being an ideal location for a downtown hotel,” Zeigler said.
Zeigler, Keats and Pearce Co. recently completed another revitalization project downtown at the old Florence Memorial Library, which is now home to Turner, Padget, Graham & Laney PA law firm.
Following the success of that project — which Zeigler said was one of the largest private investments into the downtown area in more than 40 years — the group sought out another venture.
“What we were looking for was a real game changer of a project,” he said.
Florence isn’t the first South Carolina city to use a hotel and restaurant as a catalyst for revitalization of a historic downtown.
Both Columbia and Greenville’s highly successful revitalization projects involved the development of similar projects — the Weston in Columbia and the Hyatt in Greenville, respectively — to jump-start further development.
That “explosive growth” is what Zeigler said the group hopes to see in Florence.
“The type of active that a hotel brings is second to none in terms of bringing in and stimulating activity,” he said.