By Eric Curl
Oct. 15, 2023 – The former dry cleaners at 401 E. Bay St. has been surrounded by a chain-link fence and orange and white construction barriers for years after plans to construct a boutique hotel at the site failed to move forward.
Advertise with Savannah Agenda
The vacant building sits amid downtown’s core, across the street from businesses and homes, even as nearby office buildings are bought for the purpose of being converted into luxury hotels.
Brian Huskey, who owns a restaurant, B. Matthews, across the street, said the property has been an eyesore for years. It is frustrating not knowing what is going on with the property, Huskey said.
The property was supposed to be developed as a 55-room boutique Lark Hotel, but has sat undeveloped since CEO Rob Blood described the project in a 2016 Savannah Morning News article.
“Savannah is one of the South’s premier iconic destinations, rich in creativity, history and coastal beauty, which we feel gives Lark Hotels an opportunity to be successful,” Blood said at the time.
On Friday, Lark Hotels’ Marketing Director Joshua Dellheim said via email that the company sold the property “several” years ago and they are not aware what the current development plans are. Dellheim did not respond to an inquiry as to why Lark did not move forward with the project.
Attempts to reach the current owner of the property, Charleston-based Savannah 55 LLC, were unsuccessful. Phillip Woollcott, listed at the contact for the company, did not respond to requests for comment.
Since July 2011, there have been a total of ten code compliance cases filed against the owner of the site, according to a city spokesperson. There is currently one open case that was initiated in October 2021 due to a complaint regarding the property being unsecured with homeless people living in the structure and exterior housing code violations. The case entered the court system in April 2022 due to minimal progress from the owner to correct violations and the next scheduled court hearing is set for mid-November, the spokesperson said.
The abandoned project comes as multiple developers are poised to convert downtown office buildings into hotels. Plans were recently approved to renovate the historic 15-story building at 2 E. Bryan St. for use as a Ritz-Carlton hotel, while New York-based LEFT LANE has begun converting the Manger office building across Johnson Square into a hotel. Marriott also recently purchased the Hunter MaClean building a few blocks away at 200 E. St Julian St.
The city is also seeking additional office space and considering the construction of a new office building that would be attached to the Johnny Mercer Theatre, as presented in April 2022. The potential new office building is being sought more than four years after the city sold their Broughton Street office building to a developer who was supposed to develop the mid-century structure into a boutique hotel. Today, the 6-story building sits vacant and unused, as previously reported.
Meanwhile, some property owners are planning to demolish their three buildings across from Forsyth Park’s southwest end to construct an office complex and underground garage, which they say is needed due to all the hotel projects and loss of office space. The buildings include a funeral home in a 2-story building that dates back to 1885 and a 1-story building at 1001 Whitaker St. that was constructed in 1961 as the IBM Eastern Region Office. The third building is at 1015 Whitaker St., a one story Art Deco style building built in 1957 that was purchased in 2020 by Savannah-based Dulany Industries, which plans to relocate its employees to the new building, according to David Paddison, president of Sterling Seacrest Pritchard, which owns and uses the building at 1001 Whitaker St. as the insurance broker’s Savannah headquarters.
“We like our building, Reed (Dulany) likes his building, the funeral home is fine where they are; but in order to have once in a lifetime opportunity, we have to look at all the ways to make next 100-year plan for that corner,” Paddison said, while suggesting the city may partner with them for the garage aspect of the project. “It’s the only site downtown where you can have this kind of public-private partnership and end up with what I’ll call a life changing economic event.”
#StayEngagedSavannah
If you find value in this website, please consider contributing via Paypal to help cover the costs. You can also send contributions via Venmo @Savannah_Agenda. Your support, no matter how much you give, is appreciated and will help ensure the future viability of this community resource. You can also show your support by sharing Savannah Agenda with others via email or social media. Increasing readership is critical to the long-term success of this site.