The first branded hotel in the River District broke ground Tuesday, launching about a year and a half of construction on the Hyatt Studios property that will be geared toward long-term stays.
The hotel on the banks of the Dan River near the Main Street Bridge will have 122 rooms, designed for guests who are in town for weeks or months at a time, like construction crews and students in the U.S. Navy’s Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing 12-week program.
There was pent-up demand for this type of lodging, said Rory Dowling, owner of 1st & Main Development, the Durham-based company behind the project.
Construction on big projects in the city and county continues to require crews to stay in the area for longer periods of time. In March, Italian rocket manufacturer Avio announced a $500 million investment for a new facility in Hurt in Pittsylvania County, and lithium-ion battery separator company Microporous began construction this week at its new facility at the Berry Hill megasite.
And many students at the ATDM program are living in River District apartments for months at a time, taking those units off the market for people who are looking to move to Danville amid an ongoing regional housing shortage.
“You’ve got this demand for people that are either coming here to build or to train, and there’s just not really that type of true extended-stay offering right now,” Dowling said. “This will hopefully alleviate some of the backlog of that residential demand as builders try to catch up and get more units here.”
On top of housing demand, Danville continues to see lodging demand grow beyond its current supply. The city is working on meeting this need — two other hotels are being built on Riverside Drive, a few miles from the Hyatt site, and a new boutique hotel opened in February in the Schoolfield neighborhood.
There are nearly 1,300 hotel rooms in Danville today, according to information provided by Lisa Meriwether, Danville’s tourism director. Since 2020, the Bee Hotel, the Holbrook Hotel, Caesars Virginia and the Laurel Hotel have opened, adding over 400 rooms to Danville’s lodging supply.
Nightly stays in Danville were up about 10% during the first half of this fiscal year over the first half of last fiscal year. The city has seen an increase from 21,500 to 23,700 stays per month, according to the city’s chief financial officer, Michael Adkins.
This Hyatt Studios Riverfront will be the first branded hotel in the River District area, located between downtown and North Main Hill, a neighborhood that the city is working to revitalize.
It marks the third project in Danville for 1st & Main Development, which builds both apartments and hotels.
The $35 million project is “a significant investment along our riverfront, one of Danville’s natural assets,” said Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones during the groundbreaking.
“It’s another step in strengthening the River District as a destination for visitors, businesses and residents alike,” Jones said. “This project really speaks to the moment and the momentum we’re establishing here in our city and our region. We’re seeing more opportunity, more investment, more people choosing Danville.”
The rooms will have amenities for longer stays, like larger room spaces including a seating area, a larger refrigerator and a hot plate for cooking. The hotel property will also connect to the riverwalk, a paved walking trail that runs along the Dan River for more than 10 miles and a pool that overlooks the trail.
From a vision to a reality
Conversations about this project started about two years ago, Dowling said. Because of the location along the river at a former Dan River Mills site, the property required a thorough environmental analysis before work could begin.
The developers had to make sure there was no groundwater contamination at the brownfield site from previous mill operations. They also had to conduct flood analysis and build up the ground at the site about 7 feet above ground level to mitigate flood impacts, Dowling said.
“They had to go through the same thing with the YMCA on the other side [of the bridge],” Dowling said. “It’s definitely not easy, it adds cost, it adds time.”
But after several delays, the project is now expected to finish construction in about a year and a half, opening in late summer or fall of 2027.
Hyatt launched its Hyatt Studios properties for extended stays in 2023. Five of these properties are open across the country, 10 more are under construction and 70 are planned, said Jared Riccio, regional vice president of development for Hyatt.
In addition to the larger rooms, the property will also cater to long-term guests with a market for grab-and-go food, where guests pay at a kiosk rather than waiting to be helped at a register.
Dowling said that the outdoor pool and connection to the riverwalk will encourage guests to “take advantage of outdoor recreation” in Danville.
Tina Leone, executive director of the River District Association, said she’s hopeful that guests will also patronize local businesses in the River District and North Main neighborhood.
“They’ll be bringing overnight visitors directly to the doorstep of our downtown,” Leone said at the groundbreaking. “More visitors means more feet on the street, more customers and more opportunity for our local businesses to thrive. … This is exactly the kind of investment that puts the River District on the map as a destination, not just for locals, but for visitors.”
