New hotel slated for downtown Columbia

A new Holiday Inn is coming to downtown Columbia.

The new hotel will be built in an existing 10-story office building at 1233 Washington St., according to a news release from commercial real estate broker NAI Avant.

The Champaneri brothers' Lexington Hospitality group purchased the 42,000-square-foot building from ROIF Washington LLC for $1,950,000. Raj, A.J. and Nash Champaneri developed the Aloft Hotel on Lady Street in the Vista.

Steve Patel, developer of the boutique Hotel Trundle on Taylor and Sumter streets, is a minority partner.

The building is a 1950s office building that has been underutilized in recent years, said Matt Kennell, president and CEO of Center City Partnership, which encourages and guides development in the Main Street district.

Raj Champaneri said the brothers "wanted to restore it to its original glory. We are going to try with the 1950s theme, particularly in the public spaces and bring some of that to the guest rooms as well."

The project will begin next month and should be completed by fall 2019.

"There's a pretty good demand in Columbia," Champaneri said. "It's not a very large hotel, 90 rooms. So we'll be able to sustain it."

The hotel will be a half block from the Sheraton hotel on Main Street. With it, the Sheraton, the Marriott and Hotel Trundle, the Main Street district is developing a substantial hotel cluster, Kennell said.

"We’re just very excited about it," he said. "Hotels are good for downtown. They bring people. And those people are going to be pulling out their wallets and spending money."

This story was originally published April 4, 2018 at 10:29 AM with the headline "New hotel slated for downtown Columbia."