Savannah has a bigger convention hall. Next up? More hotel rooms next door.
SAVANNAH ― New hotel projects pop up in Savannah like weeds in a neglected lawn — except near the city’s bustling convention center, located on an island across the Savannah River from the historic downtown.
That changed Wednesday with the construction launch of a 444-room hotel adjacent to Savannah’s recently expanded conference facility. The lodging project is 15 years and three false starts in the making.
Previous attempts to build the hotel in 2010, 2016 and 2022 flopped because of financing challenges and other market-related issues. Those failures left the 403-room Westin Savannah Harbor, opened when the convention center first debuted 25 years ago, as the only hotel within walking distance of the conference hall.
The state-financed $276 million convention center expansion created a new sense of urgency to add the second hotel. Local conference planners cited lost or hesitant bookings related to the shortage of hotel rooms adjacent to the convention center.
That led the convention center’s owner, the state through the Georgia-Savannah Convention Center Authority, to back the latest hotel bid and secure $398 million in tax-exempt bonds from the Savannah Economic Development Authority to finance construction.
The now-under-construction hotel, a Signia by Hilton that will connect to the convention center, is expected to open in May 2028. The hotel is being developed by Atlanta-based Songy Highroads and will include meeting space, a 13,000-square-foot ballroom and several food and dining options for guests. It will employ 250 staffers once completed.
“The convention center is our front door to the world, and this is the next chapter in our journey,” said Kelvin Moore, the Savannah Convention Center’s general manager. “This hotel will help elevate the destination of Savannah for decades to come.”
The build site is next to a narrow man-made harbor that has been discussed as a future home for the Nuclear Ship Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered merchant ship. The decommissioned vessel is currently berthed at the Port of Baltimore and its caretaker, the U.S. Maritime Administration, is in talks with local officials about taking possession of the ship and converting it to a museum and event venue.
The hotel is broadly seen as a must to maximize the convention center’s potential. The expansion doubled the facility’s footprint and made it the 71st largest in the country, with the capacity to host conferences of more than 5,000 attendees. The expanded convention center hosted its first event, a 300-team youth volleyball tournament, in February.
The larger conference venue is marketed to groups that require 2,000-plus hotel rooms, and tourism officials currently must work with 15 or more hotels to find that many rooms. With all those hotels except the Westin Savannah Harbor separated from the convention center by the Savannah River, logistics are a challenge.
So is Savannah’s notoriously high hotel occupancy rate, which consistently exceeds the national average of about 65%. Downtown Savannah hotels regularly top 90% occupancy.
The demand is why even local hoteliers — whose businesses will compete with the new hotel for business — back its construction. The metro Savannah area has 19,546 hotel rooms with about 1,000 more in planning or development.
Mark Smith, chairman of the Convention Center Authority, calls the new hotel an “insurance policy” for the success of the expanded convention center.
“The hotel will provide critical support for our vibrant convention center and tourism industry,” he said at the groundbreaking.
The absence of a second convention center hotel has hindered convention recruitment, according to Visit Savannah, the local convention and visitors bureau. More than 80 prospective conferences that likely booked elsewhere since 2023 cited “required too many hotels” among the reasons they didn’t choose Savannah for their events.
A second convention center hotel would not have guaranteed all or most of that business for Savannah, officials said, but would potentially have made the Savannah Convention Center more competitive.
Dozens more prospective customers have been slow to make future bookings in Savannah in recent years while waiting to learn the timeline for the second convention center hotel’s development.
Two on-site convention center hotels offering nearly 850 rooms combined hits what officials call a “sweet spot” for convention planners eyeing facilities of Savannah’s size. Those bookings typically need 900 to 1,200 rooms a night and value the convenience of being within walking distance of the conference hall.
Gov. Brian Kemp, who championed the convention center’s expansion, said the hotel ground-breaking is a “milestone” for Savannah as a destination for tourists and business travelers.
“This hotel is another reminder of the historic levels of jobs, investment and visitors coming here thanks to the pro-business environment we’ve fostered and the recent additions we’ve made to the Savannah Convention Center,” Kemp said.
The Signia Savannah will be the second hotel by the Hilton-owned brand built next to a Georgia convention hall. The Signia Atlanta, a 1,000-room glass skyscraper Hilton considers its flagship hotel for the Signia brand, opened next to the Georgia World Congress Center and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in January 2024. The Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the same entity that manages the Signia Savannah, backed the bonds that funded the Atlanta hotel.
About the Author
Adam Van Brimmer is a journalist who covers politics and Coastal Georgia news for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
