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The 247 room Spartanburg Marriott Working
 Hard to be Catalyst for City

By Susan Orr, Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, S.C.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jan. 16, 2005 - The executives who run the Spartanburg Marriott at Renaissance Park know that no hotel is an island.

They're proud of the 247-room full-service hotel, which boasts 30,000 square feet of meeting space and, they say, amenities and furnishings as elegant as in any hotel.

But they also know their upscale hotel is located in Spartanburg, which lacks the density of population, businesses and attractions found in Atlanta or Charlotte, N.C., or even in Greenville's downtown.

The hotel, which opened Jan. 15, 2004, is also without some of the amenities that were included in developer Arthur Cleveland's original plans for the property before he ran into financial problems.

The pool looks out over an unfinished back yard of red dirt, which was intended to be a nine-hole par-3 course behind the hotel. A Starbucks coffee shop and gift shop that were included in original plans have yet to open, though the hotel's manager, Brian Hilger, said he has heard the shops may be coming in the second quarter of this year.

Because of this, the hotel's managers say they must make an extra effort to attract customers -- especially the conferences and other business events that are the mainstay of the hotel's weekday business.

"The local market knows us very well, but they're not the ones filling up our rooms -- the region is," said Rick Blackburn, who works in Charlotte as area director of sales and marketing for Marriott International.

"Unless we get in front of (prospective customers) before they make the decision to go to Atlanta, we'll never be known."

That's why, in the Marriott's first year, its executives say they have tried to promote not just the hotel, but also the area in general to prospective clients.

The Spartanburg property is managed by Marriott International. Some Marriott properties are company-run, while others are franchised.

Promotional material for the Spartanburg hotel highlights area attractions including nearby golf courses, colleges, businesses and parks.

And the Marriott has formed partnerships with area businesses and attractions -- a move that has benefited both the hotel and its partners, according to those involved.

"Let's face it -- the Marriott and Spartanburg, when it comes to Spartanburg, are linked," Mayor Bill Barnet said.

Barnet, whose city government is owed money by the hotel's developer, has served as a zealous booster for the hotel, even showing up to personally to meet prospective Marriott customers when they come to evaluate the facility.

One of the Marriott's partners is BMW, which offers tours at its Spartanburg County factory and Zentrum visitors center, as well as driving instruction at its Performance Center.

"We're looking forward to a great 2005 with them. They're very aggressive," said Diane Nevelle, the Performance Center's driver training and events manager.

"They're very serious about Spartanburg and promoting Spartanburg."

In November, BMW's Performance Center hosted a daylong driving event for 140 Marriott managers who were staying at the Renaissance property, and Nevelle said since then she has received several calls from Marriott managers interested in booking future events.

"We generated a lot of interest across the different Marriotts across the Atlantic region," Nevelle said.

Another partner is the Prime Outlets shopping mall in Gaffney.

The first collaborative event was in October, when the two companies co-hosted a social event at the mall that brought some 150 women from multiple states.

The mall and the hotel have also teamed up to offer a special tour package that includes lodging, meals and transportation from the Marriott to Prime Outlets.

"It's an ideal partnership, definitely, and we haven't seen all the fruits of it yet. I think it's going to be very positive," said Patricia Byrd, Prime Outlets' marketing director.

Byrd said her mall also has partnerships with other area hotels, since a significant percentage of the mall's traffic comes from travelers and bus tours.

The hotel's executives say, though, that being in Spartanburg also has some advantages -- instead of being one among many large downtown hotels, the Marriott is a one-of-a-kind, which has helped generate local interest and support.

"Other brands will be here in years to come, but we're the first one," Blackburn said.

Before the hotel opened and for several months afterwards, Marriott management says the hotel was overwhelmed with calls from local residents who wanted to come tour the property. Even now, the managers say, local customers are often eager to offer praise and suggestions for improvement.

"Usually, we don't receive as much feedback as we have in Spartanburg, and it's actually really refreshing," said hotel general manager Hilger.

There are other signs of success at the Marriott.

In its first year, it landed several large functions -- it provided accommodations for the Miss South Carolina and Miss South Carolina Teen pageant contestants and volunteers this summer, and in the fall it was the host hotel for the EURO Auto Festival, a gathering of European car enthusiasts from around the Southeast.

The hotel hosted more than 50 holiday parties this past season, not including smaller gatherings held in the hotel's restaurant.

Based on customer surveys, the Spartanburg Marriott is top-ranked among the hotel chain's 319 full-service U.S. hotels on two separate factors -- the number of overnight guests who say word-of-mouth drew them to the hotel, and the number of guests who say they intend to return to the hotel for another stay.

Though the Spartanburg Marriott's rates are higher than those for many other local hotels (the current corporate weekday rate is $119, and $89 on weekend), the hotel's managers say these prices are in keeping with rates for comparable area hotels.

The Marriott adjusts its rates throughout the week and the year to keep up with the market, and it considers its competitors to be the other full-service hotels in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, including Greenville's Embassy Suites and its downtown Hyatt.

"It's very competitive with other Upstate full-service hotels," Hilger said of his hotel's rates.

Barnet, along with the Marriott executives, said they see another comparison between the Spartanburg hotel and Greenville's Hyatt.

They envision the Marriott helping create the same type of momentum that Greenville began when its downtown Hyatt kicked off downtown revitalization there years ago.

"They started with the Hyatt and nobody thought anything else would follow it, but it did," Barnet said.

The city of Greenville's economic development director, Nancy Whitworth, agreed that the Hyatt was a catalyst for the city when it opened in 1982.

"It really kind of set the state for all of the development that was to follow," Whitworth said.

And, like the Renaissance project, Whitworth said, the Hyatt project was a public/private partnership, giving the community a vested interest in the hotel's success.

But, Whitworth said, Greenville's downtown did not blossom overnight -- other major Main Street developments took years to appear.

The Peace Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1991, and the long-vacant Poinsett Hotel building opened in 2000 after a major renovation. It wasn't until the mid-'90s that restaurants started opening in volume, Whitworth said, and the nearby Bi-Lo Center didn't open until 1998.

"There's not a silver bullet. One project alone isn't going to turn something around overnight," Whitworth said.

"You've got to be in it for the long haul."

-----To see more of the Herald-Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.GoUpstate.com.

(c) 2005, Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected]. MAR,

 
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