By Eric Curl
Dec. 3, 2024 – Following a closed-door executive-session meeting on Nov. 1, the Chatham County Commission approved the sale of parcel 7, a 20-acre site with a river inlet that is immediately west of the Savannah Convention Center.
The parcel includes the site where a new convention center hotel is supposed to be built, along with the Slip 3 water channel that is to serve as a ferry dock for Chatham Area Transit.
The pending sale comes more than two decades after the Georgia Department of Community Affairs provided a $3.3 million grant in 2021 to Chatham to acquire the parcel and slip to further the mission of the convention center by providing a site for another hotel and related development. The county then leased the parcel to the convention center for 50 years.
On Tuesday, Commissioner Patrick Farrell said that the convention center authority needed to purchase the property as a requirement to obtain bond financing for the hotel project. The county is to be paid about $8.5 million over a multi-year period, Farrell said.
Chairman Chester Ellis and Commissioner Bobby Lockett, whose district includes Hutchinson, voted against the sale, according to the meeting minutes. There was no public discussion of the proposed sale prior to the vote, and it is not clear at this time why Ellis and Lockett opposed the sale. Savannah Agenda reached out to both commissioners on Tuesday morning and this article will be updated when a response is received. Savannah Agenda also reached out to the convention center authority on Monday and is awaiting a response.
The proposed sale comes after the county commission approved a $75,000 funding request from the county engineer in January to determine the extent of contamination on the site and develop a remediation plan for the property. It is not clear whether that study was ever completed.
Timeline of Savannah Convention Center property
After acquiring the property, the county leased the parcel to the convention center for 50 years.
In 2006, the Trade Center Authority engaged Savannah urban planners Sottile & Sottile to create the Parcel 7 Civic Master Plan; and Thomas and Hutton Engineers to design an extension of the Hutchinson Island River Walk into Slip No. 3, as well as a new water ferry maintenance facility.
In 2023, Atlanta-based Songy Highroads was selected to build a planned 400-room hotel adjacent to the convention center, as reported by the Savannah Morning News and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
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