Hampton Inn among new hotels coming to Decatur

Bayne Hughes, The Decatur Daily, Ala.
·3 min read

Dec. 16—A Hampton Inn & Suites is joining the city's list of new hotels while construction of the Fairfield Inn by Marriott continues in downtown Decatur.

The city's Technical Review Committee this week voted to recommend site-plan approval for the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel on 2.84 acres at 1205 Courtyard Circle S.W. for LBYD Engineers, of Huntsville, on behalf of Doradus Partners, also of Huntsville. The Planning Commission will vote on site-plan approval at its Tuesday meeting.

Richard Walker, an architect and designer at Hogan Campis Architecture, of Atlanta, said the plan is for a four-story, 112-room hotel with a pool and fitness and meeting rooms.

"We expect all of the pertinent documents will be complete and approved by January. We then hope to start construction as soon as possible," said Walker, who is working with Tom Hogan, the principal architect in charge of the project.

The newest Hampton hotel will be just off Beltline Road Southwest and behind Logan's Restaurant and Redstone Federal Credit Union. It will fill the last available spot on Courtyard Circle, which also includes Courtyard by Marriott Decatur and Residence Inn by Marriott Decatur.

This will be the second Hampton Inn in the city. Hampton Inn Decatur is just 1 mile away on Beltline Road, near Burger King. — Fairfield Inn

The Hampton Inn & Suites is one of three new hotels planned or under construction in the city.

Fite Building Co. is building Fairfield Inn by Marriott at the corner of East Moulton Street and Second Avenue Southeast. Another developer recently got the property at the corner of Beltline Road and Old Moulton Road rezoned so it can build an unnamed hotel on the site.

"There seems to be plenty of need for more hotel rooms," said Dane Shaw, city director of development. "We need the hotel rooms to provide space for all of the softball, soccer and archery tournaments that are coming to Decatur."

Construction of the Fairfield Inn is progressing, with Fite working on the wood framework of the four-story, 80-room hotel in the last two months.

"It's going up so quickly on the outside that people will say, 'Oh my, look how they're building it so fast," said J. Robert Fite, senior project manager for Fite Building Co. "But then it will look like it's just sitting there because you can't see all of the interior work in the building."

The Decatur construction company is also building a parking deck for the city adjacent to the Fairfield Inn on the corner of East Moulton Street and First Avenue Southeast. The site work has been done but Fite said they're "working on finalizing structure drawings and doing a lot of engineering."

He said it actually works well that they haven't started building the parking deck because it allows them to use the property as a staging area for the hotel. Both buildings are scheduled to be complete at the same time in the fall of 2023.

"We want it so that when a customer pulls into downtown to stay at our hotel the parking deck is available for them, too," Fite said.

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.