The idea of a new parking deck in downtown Auburn has been buzzing for several years. With new developments all over the city, there has been much talk of a new downtown parking deck to accommodate Auburn’s growing population.
As the city began planning for a new parking deck to add to the available parking downtown, Southern Living approached the city with the idea to build a Southern Living Hotel in downtown Auburn.
“We have received a MOU, a memorandum of understanding, and we’ve negotiated that between the two entities the city and Harvest Capital, which is the development group that’s working on behalf of the local landowners,” Jim Buston, Auburn city manager, said.
The City Council and the Southern Living Hotel developers have agreed to the MOU, which states what each party is responsible for when the parking deck starts construction.
Buston said the plan for the Southern Living hotel is for it to be built on the current lots of Quixotes, the University Inn and where the Baptist Student Center used to be along North College Street. It will stretch down to the current Regions Bank and back to Wright Street. The proposed plan for the hotel is 75 feet tall which includes a rooftop bar, Buston said.
“When they come to the city to build a project, we have to have them build it in a certain way, especially since it’s downtown,” Buston said.
Now that the city and the developers have signed the MOU, further development plans for the project are underway, The Plainsman previously reported.
The city and Southern Living have both had their property appraised.
“Our property appraised for $80,000 more than their property, so we said ‘OK, you give us your property plus $80,000, and then we’ll build our bigger deck with the understanding that the hotel will need about 170 spaces,’” Buston said. “We said our going rate for leasing parking is $100 a month per space which is $17,000 a month they will pay us.”
If the Southern Living hotel comes to Auburn, then the city hopes to get 586 spaces total in the parking deck, some of which would be only for hotel guests. The hotel will lease approximately 170 parking spaces from the city at a rate comparable to what the parking spaces would yield in revenue if they were public spaces, Buston said.
Buston said regardless of whether the hotel comes to Auburn, the city will still have a public parking deck on Wright Street. It is taking over the land where the Baptist Student Center was and the land behind it. It will also have at least 300-350 public parking spaces.
This would mean the city would build a 586 space deck with approximately 386 space dedicated to public parking. When initial plans for the parking deck were being created, the city was looking at 300-350 public spaces, meaning the hotel development will allow for more public parking.
The Baptist Student Center will be rebuilt on the first floor of the parking deck, and will have 15 dedicated parking spaces. Regions Bank will also have 15 dedicated spaces in the parking deck, Buston said.
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