The downtown Hyatt has a new owner, and the city has some ideas

July 12, 2026 – The downtown hotel Savannahians love to hate has a new owner, at a time the big, bland block of beige protruding over River Street could play a pivotal role in a new plan to upgrade the city’s waterfront.

The Hyatt Regency Savannah at 2 W. Bay St. was purchased on June 30 for $105.2 million, according to a tax transfer filing. The buyer, an entity registered as C&C Bay Hotel Owner, LLC, is a joint venture between two investment firms, New York-based Certares, and California-based Clearview Hotel Capital.

In a July 1 press release, Certares and Clearview Hotel Capital announced plans to invest in guest rooms and other guest-facing areas while maintaining the property’s position as a destination for business and leisure travelers.

“The Hyatt Regency Savannah exemplifies our strategy of investing in strong, well-located hotels in growing markets,” said Nolan Hecht, senior managing director of Certares. “We specifically seek out markets where there are diverse demand drivers in both leisure and business, and there is no better example of this than Savannah, which has significantly built out its business infrastructure while doubling down on leisure destinations like the Historic District that make it so unique. Partnering with Clearview, an experienced Savannah hotel owner, will help us capitalize on the property’s full potential.”

While the new owners emphasized reinvestment in the property, the building itself has long been a source of criticism among some residents.

Dating back to 1981, the 351-room structure that forms an enclosed tunnel along River Street has often been thought of as a design mistake by many due to its obstructive mass and severing of the waterfront corridor.

The acquisition comes after the Savannah City Council’s unanimous approval last month of a long-range vision plan for Savannah’s historic waterfront and authorization of a memorandum of understanding with the Savannah Waterfront Community Improvement District to begin implementing its first phase of improvements. The vision plan will serve as the city’s guiding framework for future waterfront planning, capital investments and public-private partnerships, while the agreement establishes a $1.5 million partnership to complete initial upgrades including decorative ironwork, lighting and refuse enclosures.

The passage under the Hyatt Hotel could take on a more inviting and interesting character with the addition of arched gateways at each entrance, as well as pedestrian scaled streetlamps connecting the public sidewalk, and specialty lighting developed through the passage. Rendering by Sottile & Sottile.
The waterfront along the Hyatt is currently one of the most vacant and underutilized sections of the Savannah Riverwalk. The addition of planters and streetlamps would make this frontage more inviting through the introduction of human-scale elements that offer visual continuity with the more vibrant stretches of the riverfront to the east and west. Rendering by Sottile & Sottile.
The Hyatt protrudes over River Street to the Savannah Riverwalk. Eric Curl/July 10, 2026
Points of access to River Street should be recognizable and easy to find. Developing a consistent and easily recognizable treatment for each of the access points would enhance the sense of welcome to the waterfront, enable more intuitive wayfinding, and enhance the beauty and imaging of the public realm. Rendering by Sottile & Sottile.
The entrance to the Hyatt Regency Savannah at 2 W. Bay St. Eric Curl/July 10, 2026

The plan includes some suggestions for making the Hyatt earn its place among such a vital downtown corridor. Recommendations include making the passage beneath the hotel more inviting with arched gateways and pedestrian-scale lighting and converting the hotel’s windowless parking garage façade into a large-scale mural and adding planters and streetlights along what it describes as “one of the most vacant and underutilized sections” of the Savannah Riverwalk. The plan also calls for improved wayfinding to help visitors more easily find access points between Bay Street and River Street.

Whether or not the new owners will be on board with the recommendations remains to be seen.

The Certares and Clearview announcement did not address whether any of those recommendations will be incorporated into the planned improvements or whether they are even aware of them. Savannah Agenda reached out for comment last week concerning the hotel acquisition and this article will be updated if a response is received.

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