2016 Annual Meeting Caps with $1.2M Downtown Announcement
Mar 31, 2016
Downtown’s Rodeway Inn to get $1.2M facelift
GREENVILLE — The hundreds of folks who attended the Washington County Economic Alliance’s annual meeting had a night filled with good company, good food and good entertainment. Not to mention, good news.
At the Tuesday event, Suresh Chawla announced his family, who owns 18 hotels in the Delta, two of which are in Greenville, will be opening a new hotel in the Queen City.
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“We plan to transform the hotel we have, which is the Rodeway Inn, with a $1.2 million investment,” Chawla said, adding it will be a full-service, 120-room hotel.
“Greenville has our number one revenue producing hotel, which is the Hampton Inn. With that in mind, it is time for us to go ahead and develop something brand new.”
Chawla could not announce the official name of the hotel at this time since they are under development. With that being said, he did note everyone appears to be on board.
“All I can tell you is it will be much nicer than our Hampton Inn. It will be a full-service hotel. It will have a restaurant. It will have a coffee shop. It will have a bar. It will have a conference center that can hold up to 300 people,” he said.
“We can’t wait to make a formal announcement in a few months.”
Keeping in rhythm with Chawla’s announcement, Cary Karlson, Washington County Economic Alliance executive director, during the program also named a few projects that have gone on throughout the year, including developer Bill Boykin’s $9.1 million project in downtown and the Federal Court House that is expected to be making its way to Greenville.
Karlson also gave out awards for the year, including the Ambassador of the Year award, which they decided to name after Betty Lynn Cameron for her dedicated service to the City of Greenville. Taking home that award was Martha Bell.
The Larry Cazavan Leadership Award went to Mary Catherine Davis; the Jake Stein Small Business Enterprise Award went to the S. Goodman Department Store; and the Chuck Jordan Leadership Award went to two individuals: Boykin and Ryan Ashley.
Jon Alverson, publisher of the Delta Democrat-Times, awarded the Peter Watzek Volunteer Award to Lynn Cox.
Following the awards, the crowd was rolling in laughter as Marshall Ramsey, editorial cartoonist for the Clarion Ledger, took the stage.
“I want to make people laugh. There is so much serious stuff going on in the world that I think we need to do that. But, also I want to let people know that out of our worst moments become our best,” Ramsey said.
“This is an awesome community. This is a community that has suffered through some really tough times but has always bounced back.”
Debra Wintory, chamber director, said the Washington County Economic Alliance’s annual meeting was a great success.
“We had a great turnout tonight. We had over 50 showcase booths. We got over 50 round tables out here. And, we also have 17 local restaurants giving out samples of their food. We got a packed house. … It is all about celebrating last year and talking about how we plan to move forward,” she said.
Mary Alford malford@ddtonline.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 30, 2016