Interim City Manager Roger LeDuc at first thought the chances of revitalizing Hotel Aiken and adding a public parking garage would be slim.
"When (local hotel owner) Neel Shah and I first started talking about it, it was just kind of a dream," LeDuc said. "(We thought) that would be really great."
Three to four months later, after beginning discussions with Shah in December, plans are in place to bring one of the largest public-private partnerships to the City of Aiken.
City staff, alongside Shah, confirmed in a City Council work session last week Shah's plans to gut and renovate Hotel Aiken, 235 Richland Ave. W., which is currently owned by his father, and possibly turn the old hotel into a Marriott.
City staff looked at similar construction in other areas around South Carolina, which included the Project Jackson expansion in North Augusta, Summerville, Myrtle Beach, Anderson and Sumter.
"We're excited about this revitalization in downtown Aiken, and we're looking forward to making it happen," Shah told the Aiken Standard.
Hotel Aiken was built in 1898 and was last renovated in 2011, according to the hotel's website. If proposed conceptual renderings go forward, the 65-room hotel would expand to 80-85 rooms. Renderings were provided to the Aiken Standard of what the hotel will look like after its revitalization.
Hotel Aiken's main building will stay at three floors, despite earlier reports, and a six-floor addition will be constructed on the hotel's Newberry Street side, which includes queen- and king-size rooms, a dining area and possible exercise room on the bottom floor. The hotel's addition will include a walkway from the addition to the main hotel.
The City does have rules against constructing a building higher than about 50 feet; however the City is looking to change that rule, LeDuc said.
"We've been considering increasing the height (of buildings) for the downtown for some time," LeDuc told the Aiken Standard. "Basically, because when the height was first stated at 50 feet, that's back when we had a ladder truck that only went 50 feet; and now we have ladder trucks that go up to 100 feet. Regardless of the hotel, we've gone to the Planning Commission to put a 65- to- 70-foot height limit (on buildings)."
Major construction of that property would also include a public parking deck, connected to the hotel by a walkway, with the potential for retail space on the bottom floor. The public parking deck will be constructed on the left side of Bee Lane where currently Hotel Aiken has several motel rooms. Those will be torn down to make way for the $2.5 million to $3 million parking deck, which will be paid 100 percent by the City. If the parking deck has more than 100 parking spaces, the City is discussing whether to take away three to four parking spaces in front of the hotel to build a pick-up and drop-off area.
The public will be allowed to park in the deck for free; a surcharge would be added onto the hotel guest's bill, developed by the City, to park in the deck.
Council is in the midst of discussing whether to approve a one percent hospitality tax for the City of Aiken, which brings the potential to add $1.2 million per year dedicated to tourism-related projects. The one cent hospitality tax is added onto a customer's bill after they purchase food or a beverage from an establishment. The first reading of that vote will be held Monday, April 27.
If Council passes the hospitality tax, LeDuc said, staff think at least $600,000 would come into the City during the next fiscal budget year, beginning July 1. A partial amount of those collected funds, LeDuc said, would go toward constructing the parking deck. Staff hope to have the parking deck paid off within seven years.
"We want to keep the historic aspect. ... The outside of the garage will have a feature (where) you can't tell it's a garage," LeDuc said. "It'll look like more of an office building."
Currently, City staff are collecting developer's agreements from other area cities to see how other areas partnered with private companies. LeDuc said Shah is doing something similar, so within the next couple of months, the agreement can come to a Council vote.
"That's one path," LeDuc said. "The second path is then to determine the funding source for the garage. And on the (April) 13th, we will be discussing and having first reading of the hospitality tax, which takes two readings."
At that meeting, LeDuc said, staff will "lay out" for Council what the City intends to use the hospitality tax funds for.
"So it's very clear what they, the Council and the citizens, would receive if we institute it," LeDuc said. "It's not just going into a black hole. It'll be very clear, and again ... the we way we do budgeting (for the hospitality tax), we cannot by state law use these funds to do economic development - that's not allowed. You can use them for tourism-related projects."
Using those funds collected by the hospitality tax would "free up" dollars in the general fund, LeDuc said, which are usually pulled to fund tourism-related projects.
The Aiken Standard reached out to Shah who said at some point an announcement will be made with more concrete plans.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. An Atlanta native, she has a mass communications-journalism degree with the University of North Carolina Asheville. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchechter.