Dunwoody City Council has approved the zoning for a new hotel that is part of a deal to provide a new source of revenue for the nonprofit Spruill Center for the Arts.
“It’s really great,” Spruill CEO Bob Kinsey said after the council’s unanimous vote on June 24.
The new 124-room, four-story Residence Inn hotel and two new buildings that will house restaurants or shops are to be constructed at 4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road on land owned by the arts center. Owners of the new development have agreed to lease the property for 99 years. The arts center received the property about two decades ago under terms that prohibit its sale.
The new arrangement will allow development of the nearly 5-acre tract in ways that should increase traffic for the Spruill Arts Gallery, which will remain at one corner of the property, Kinsey said. “One nice thing about this development is the farmhouse gets to stay where it is, right on the corner,” he said. “It fits their needs and fits what we want.”
Kinsey said the lease would provide “a really wonderful amount” of income for the arts center, but would not say home much was to be paid.
Dunwoody city officials also said the rezoning would replace zoning placed on the tract in 2005 that would have allowed construction of up to 257 apartments on the property.
Steven Smith, a partner in Hotel Development Partners, one of the developers of the project,said construction on the new hotel could begin late in the fourth quarter of 2014 or early next year.
“We are excited about doing this development,” Smith told members of the council during their meeting. “We’re excited about what it means for the Spruill Center for the Arts and the Dunwoody community.”
Hotel Development Partners also is developing a seven-story, 132-room Hampton Inn and Suites a block away on Ashford Dunwoody at the Sterling Pointe development. Construction on that hotel could begin in August, he said.
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