The City of Auburn will move forward with its planned public parking deck after developers could not reach an agreement by the end of February to bring a Southern Living Hotel to North College Street, City Manger Jim Buston told The Plainsman.
The City will move forward with a smaller, 300-350 space deck on the land that was previously occupied by the Baptist Student Center on North College Street. The deck will include a space for the Baptist Student Center on the first floor.
The parking deck project is already behind schedule, with the project pushed back for months. The City’s initial plans, before the hotel was announced, had the deck opening in August.
“The architects will work on the design for that,” Buston said. “We will then put it out to bid and then start construction … We’re probably looking at a start date, if not in the summer, then maybe around September.”
The City was already planning to build a parking deck on the Baptist Student Center site when the plans to build a hotel were announced. The city then began working with the developers to build a bigger parking deck to accommodate both public and hotel parking needs.
They City agreed to sell their newly acquired land along North College Street for $80,000 in exchange for land near the rear of the property along Wright Street.
This new land on Wright Street would have given the City more space to build a larger deck and allow the Southern Living Hotel to have the space along North College Street.
These plans included a hotel located along North College Street that stretched from the University Inn to Regions Bank. It would have included Quixotes Bar and Grill, Pita Pit and The Bike Shop.
Lifestyle + Hotel Group had been working closely with Godbold Development Partners, the development group that owns that land, to reach an agreement to put the hotel in the heart of downtown Auburn. They reached an impasse earlier in February and informed the City they could not reach an agreement last week.
“We’re going to try to move as quickly as possible,” Buston said. “We estimated about nine months before, so six to nine months.”
LHG is actively pursuing other locations for a Southern Living hotel in Auburn, CEO and President of LHG Bill Shoaf told The Plainsman earlier this month.
While Shoaf said he could not speak to the other developer’s plans, LHG has given Godbold notice of the search. LHG still plans to build a Southern Living hotel in the downtown Auburn area, Shoaf said.
“We’ve just run out of time, so we’re actively looking at alternative sites,” Shoaf said.
LHG is working to lock down a location soon, Shoaf said.
The Southern Living hotel will feature the same amenities as the plans for the North College Street location did regardless of it’s final location. These amenities include a rooftop lounge and a restaurant in coordination with Bo Jackson.
“We’ll have all the things we were going to have on College Street, we’re just going to pick all that up and find a new home for it,” Shoaf said.
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
