City hopes to save the Granite Hotel

With the economy struggling and financing difficult to obtain, even the most interested of investors have been deterred from renovating the historic structure.

With the building continuing to decay, Winder officials are faced with additional costs to stabilize the building and prevent further deterioration until a suitable investor can be located.

According to city officials, the first priority is to put a new roof on the building and then renovate the main level so that the space can be leased. The upstairs will remain unfinished until a buyer can be found.

Winder Mayor Chip Thompson said time is of the essence.

“We’re in a position now where we’ll just have to wait and see what happens within the next year,” he said.

“We would like to have it renovated,” Thompson said. “We’re going to do everything we can to save it, but, in the end, we have to make some tough decisions.”

GLORY DAYS

Though crumbling now, the Granite Hotel was once an important part of the downtown landscape.

A home for some and temporary lodging for others, the hotel was once a gathering place for Winder residents.

Haase Arnold remembers those days. Arnold used to jerk sodas across the street from the Granite Hotel. He recalls spending time in the building.

“It was more like a boarding house than a hotel,” he said. “We had a lot of schoolteachers that lived there.”

Arnold recalls the days when the hotel had a dining room on the side of the building facing the courthouse and when the lobby was a good place to pass time.

“It was a good sized lobby,” Arnold said. “Being a teenager, I thought it was great to just sit around in the lobby over there and have somebody wait on you all the time.”

The lobby served not only as a place for visitors to check into the hotel, but also as a living room for those who lived in the building.

“It was full of rocking chairs and people would sit around playing bridge,” he said. “It was a really nice place. It was their home.”

Arnold said the building changed significantly during the forties and fifties. At various times, the Granite Hotel held a barber shop, restaurant and other retail shops on the first floor.

“Then it got so dilapidated, no one would stay there,” he said.

Over time, the building was abandoned and fell into ruin.

PLANS GONE AWRY

Slated for demolition, the hotel was saved after area residents campaigned to preserve the building for its historic significance. Built around 1900, the Granite Hotel is the last remaining granite hotel of its size in the state.

Though not renowned for its architecture or its inhabitants, the hotel is a symbol of Winder’s past and of its efforts to revitalize the downtown area.

After acquiring the hotel, the City of Winder partnered with New Urban Solutions to renovate the structure. Initial plans called for the building to be restored as a downtown residential space, a retail center or a combination of a hotel and retail center.

Despite committing more than $300,000, New Urban Solutions failed to find a suitable investor for the redevelopment project and walked away from its partnership with the city.

Mayor Thompson believes the previous administration should have condemned the hotel, but he supports efforts to save the hotel now that it belongs to the city.

“I don’t want to tear it down. However, if it comes to the point where we can’t find someone to help with this, it may become an option,” he said.

Even tearing the building down would be an expensive proposition for the city. Thompson estimates it would take over $200,000 to clear the property.

“That would be some very high priced green space,” he said.

Thompson hopes private investors will join the city’s efforts to save the hotel, but, if not, the city will be forced to move forward.

“If we can’t save it, we’ll do something nice and move on,” he said. “We have to look to the future. We’re not going to be able to save everything.”

SETTING AN EXAMPLE

Barrow County Preservation Society member Helen Person hopes the hotel will be spared.

A Winder native, Person is determined to improve the downtown area while preserving the city’s past.

“I would like for us to take a look at the buildings we have and celebrate the buildings that have made us unique,” she said. The Granite Hotel is just one of the buildings Person would like to see renovated.

During a recent tour of the Granite Hotel, Person was dismayed to see how badly the building has fared over the years.

“The roof was leaking, parts of the floor are missing and the mortar is in bad shape,” she said.

Though Person realizes the city is reluctant to invest any more money in the project, she feels that protecting the building will show the community that city leaders are serious about revitalizing downtown.

“Then you can turn around to these other building owners and tell them they have to do something with their property,” she said.

Thompson agrees. The mayor said it is difficult to tell other downtown property owners to maintain their buildings when the city owns what is considered by some to be nothing more than a dilapidated ruin.

A LOSING PROPOSITION

Even if an investor is found and the building renovated, Winder City Administrator Bob Beck said the city’s prospects for recouping its investment in the Granite Hotel are not good.

“We will not get the $450,000 back,” he said. “We have already written our investment down.”

According to Beck, the city currently has no prospective buyers or developers for the hotel. Beck said the city has applied for a grant from the State of Georgia. The grant money combined with revenue from the general fund would be used to begin renovations on the building.

If the grant funds do not materialize, the picture changes considerably.

“We’re in very, very tough times right now in terms of revenues and so forth,” he said. “Even in the best of times, our most difficult decisions are how to allocate limited resources.”

Beck explained resources are always limited whether in good times or bad. Beck said city leaders will have to decide if the money could be better spent elsewhere.

“The question becomes that if this is a million dollar project, is that the best way for the city to spend the million dollars,” he said. “Those are not easy decisions to make when you look at other things that could be done with a million dollars.”

Despite the mounting costs associated with ownership of the Granite Hotel, Beck said the city fully supports the efforts of the Barrow Preservation Society and is hopeful the building will be restored.

“When the dust settles, if we don’t renovate the Granite Hotel, it is going to set back our attempts to revitalize downtown Winder,” he said. “I think it is crucial to the future development of our downtown area.”