GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) - A new 300-room hotel and conference center could open on state property at Lake Lanier by 2023.
Lake Lanier Islands Management Co., which leases state property at the lake north of Atlanta, could break ground this fall.
The company’s public relations director presented plans for the $155 million complex to a business group in Hall County, The Times of Gainesville reports.
The new hotel on the site would be privately financed, but the state is borrowing up to $30 million to build the 75,000 square feet (7,000 square meters) conference center.
The hotel would be built on the site of the former PineIsle hotel, the original hotel in the resort area, which was torn down in 2008.
“In a perfect world, we’d be able to open the new conference center and hotel in spring of 2023,” said Lanier Islands Public Relations Director Missy Burgess. “We’re busy talking to architects now and going over the plans.”
Bill Donohue, executive director of Lake Lanier Islands Development Authority, said discussion about the property’s renewal began in 2012.
“We think from an authority standpoint, this project is important because it give the islands a major anchor project to carry it for the next 30 years,” Donohue said.
Plans for the hotel and conference center are 80% complete, he said.
Because the design isn’t set in stone, Donohue said it could change in a way that acclimates a “post-COVID” world, including more access to the outside for dining and larger conference spaces that allow people to sit farther away from one another.
Burgess said bringing back a golf course back to the property is still being considered. PineIsle’s golf course was closed.
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