An artist’s rendering of a new Marriott-brand hotel approved for the SouthPark area.
The move to make SouthPark a more dense urban, walkable place is under way, and Charlotte City Council gave the effort a boost by approving a new 170-room Marriott property, according to an Observer report.
The AC Hotel, a Marriott-owned brand of hotels, will be eight stories and be located at the corner of Rexford and Roxborough roads on a site that is currently the parking lot of the existing Charlotte Marriott SouthPark.
This AC Hotel location will be the second for Charlotte; there is currently a location being built atop EpiCentre in Uptown.
This hotel plan includes a 2-story parking deck behind the property.
Last year, the city hired the Urban Land Institute to evaluate and come up with plans to make the bustling SouthPark area a walkable space to ease traffic congestion.
There is an influx of apartments, shops and offices moving to the SouthPark area, and the largely residential streets surrounding the area were never designed to handle the traffic from residents, people who work in the SouthPark area and shoppers.
Since the SouthPark Mall opened in 1970, the growth has been exponential, while the infrastructure is largely unchanged.
In addition to this hotel, which will help handle overflow from existing Marriott hotel, there are many projects on the docket for SouthPark, such as Encore at SouthPark, Capitol Towers, the redevelopment of Colony apartments and redevelopment at the site of Sharon United Methodist Church.