By Eric Curl
June 19, 2022 – Maybe it was the lack of chrome covered dinosaur skeletons and sparkling geodes, but the River Street East project never quite got the attention Richard Kessler’s Plant Riverside on the western side of the Savannah Riverwalk did. Now, 10 years after the 4-acre, 4-hotel development was first introduced, the plan to transform River Street’s eastern end is sure to spark some discussion.
That hotel on the east end of River Street – you know, the Homewood Suites with the pod-like feature sprouting from the roof – it’s about to get some neighbors.
After a decade of planning and amendments and historic district review board meetings, building permits were recently issued to construct a seven-story parking garage on the 8-story Homewood’s east side and another six-to-eight-story hotel on the west side. An eight-story hotel is also planned for a vacant parcel north of the garage and east of another planned hotel consisting of three two-story buildings along the Savannah Riverwalk.
The 4-acre development was first presented in 2012 – long enough ago to forget about the transformative plan. North Point Hospitality submitted the project so long ago in fact that the opposite side of River Street end has since been transformed into what is now Plant Riverside – developer Richard Kessler’s pet mega-million hotel, retail, restaurant and entertainment complex, anchored by a rehabilitated power plant, and public-private parking garage funded with $40 million in city backed bonds.
Aside from lacking in shiny bones from the Mesozoic era, the River Street East project, as it was dubbed 10 years ago, has some key differences from Kessler’s development. For instance, the project is paying for the seven story garage without government bonding support. On the other hand – rather than preserving the building that was on the site, as Kessler did with the powerplant – North Point demolished the former Savannah Electric Power Company/Georgia Power building in its way after determining asbestos prevented restoration of the 1960s-era structure.
Both projects, buttressing both ends of River Street, are huge investments in former industrial sites along the waterfront. Both projects also successfully petitioned the Savannah City Council for zoning changes to accommodate the height of the proposed buildings. The projects were reviewed under an older, less restrictive ordinance than what was adopted in 2018. Classified as a Large-Scale Development, River Street East development is within the Factors Walk Character Area, where new construction was exempt from commercial and large-scale development standards under the previous version of the ordinance.
The developer is now working with the city to increase public access to the Savannah Riverwalk. Plans for an elevator from Bay Street to River Street outside the Homewood were recently approved by the Historic District Board of Review. Following public opposition, the city has called off for now a related proposal to build a pedestrian bridge at the East Broad Street ramp to River Street that would connect Emmet Park with the planned hotel to the west.
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