Reworked plan for Five Points hotel to be presented in June, North Broad TAD discussions continue

Wednesday, May 24, 2023–4:30 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Home2Home Suites by Hilton is proposed for property adjacent to the site of the new Varsity

A reworked site plan for a proposed hotel in the Five Points area is expected to go before the Rome-Floyd County Board of Adjustments in June. Meanwhile, work continues on a reworked vision for a North Broad redevelopment corridor.

Rome City Manager Sammy Rich updated the Rome Community Redevelopment Committee on Wednesday.

“We got off to a good start on the TAD creations for both Martha Berry and North Broad,” he said. “Then, after further study and conversation, specifically on the finance side, with the amount of work and the difficulty of monitoring and keeping up with the financials due to the number of parcels, we decided to pull back and tweak how we do the North Broad TAD.”

Unlike the proposed Martha Berry Boulevard corridor, which is just 43 parcels, the North Broad Corridor is much larger with 162 parcels from CVS on Turner McCall, northward to North Drive, and east to Gibbons Street. Therefore, it is more complex. There has been discussion about making North Broad a redevelopment area where Tax Allocation District funding can be applied for and created, as opposed to the TAD district model that the city has previously used.

Sammy Rich

Rich told the committee that KB Advisory Group is going to go back and come up with some modifications to the plan. They will also perform an analysis. The cost is $12,250.

“When we get the redevelopment draft, they essentially go in and do a hypothetical analysis,” Rich said. “In this case, we’ve got an actual project, the Home2 Suites by Hilton. So, they will get the data for the proposed hotel and they would apply it, in this situation, within the confines of this TAD to show if it makes financial sense or not.”

The board of adjustments denied variance requests for the hotel project last month. Most of the variances dealt with the proposed increase in building height from 45 feet to 64 feet, thus allowing five stories and another 24 rooms. As it was presented, the hotel would have 106 rooms and an indoor pool next to the site for a proposed Varsity restaurant. However, the land is zoned for a hotel with four stories and approximately 85 rooms. Because of the increase in height, a reduction in the landscaping buffers was sought along with a decrease in the number of required parking spaces from 106 to 103.

The applicant, Sam Patel, president and CEO of Vintage Rome LLC, associated with Emerge Hospitality Group, will be able to present a reworked proposal. Rich said that the meeting is scheduled for June 15.

Rome City Commissioner Jamie Doss, who serves on the Community Redevelopment Committee asked Rich if the developer needs a TAD to make the project work.

“Yes,” Rich answered. “They’ve made that absolutely clear.”

The hotel would be located adjacent to the site of the proposed Varsity restaurant.

Under a TAD, any increase in property taxes stemming from improvements would be funneled back into the project for a set number of years. The taxing entities would have to agree to forgo the money.

Proposed North Broad redevelopment area

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