PUTNAM COUNTY
Theonie Alicandro, chief operations officer and general counsel for the Drew Company, said it all started in October 2022 when a request for proposal (RFP) notice crossed her desk in Boston. The RFP came courtesy of the Putnam Development Authority (PDA), describing the 102-year-old Hotel Eatonton on South Madison Avenue and seeking outside interest in the structure.
“To be honest, I did not know where Eatonton was. I had to look it up,” Alicandro admitted last month, shortly after holding a press conference on the front steps of the three-story building to announce plans to develop the site as a modernized, 50-room boutique hotel. “I started to learn a little bit more about the city and then did a road trip with our team. We came and looked at the town and we absolutely were enchanted by it right away.”
The Drew Company is a billion-dollar construction and development firm, having built many large projects in the past, nationally and internationally, including several landmark buildings in Boston.
Additionally, the Drew Company recently opened an Atlanta branch and is currently constructing The Signia by Hilton Atlanta, a 976-room, 4-star hotel adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We could feel the potential and seeing this hotel site (in Eatonton) we could really see it had great bones and we just wanted to figure out how could we make this work,” Alicandro continued. “So, we went back and started to look at some options. Does the deal pencil out? Figure out what we could offer for a purchase price. And so, the more we spoke with Matt (Poyner) and Walt (Rocker) with the PDA, we just felt like the city and the county were just very supportive of having a development happen here.”
She said things moved quickly, with a presentation made within two months to the PDA board, which led to a signed agreement of intent in January this year.
“Since then, we’ve been working through some of the approvals that we need in order to get some variances and things like that,” Alicandro explained. “That happened this summer. So now we thought it was an appropriate time to let the community know what we’re doing and make sure that we’re moving forward.”
However, physical work on the site is not likely to start for “six to eight months,” she added. “We’ve got to work through the rest of the design process. So, let’s say next spring. And then after that, we’ll break ground and then hopefully start construction.
And then depending on when we start that, either fourth quarter 2024, first quarter 2025, we could be ready to open.”
Several conceptual drawings were on display at the presentation here last month, showing a major addition to the current structure that would boost total capacity to 50 guest rooms, including just seven within the original portion of the building.
Additionally, the drawings showed an entrance lobby that also featured a small ground-level lounge, a restaurant, and a gift shop. Early plans call for a rooftop bar, too.
Alicandro said depending on the results of structural engineering exams and testing, plans could change, but she stressed that early indications look good.
“Certainly, the facade of this historic building, we’re going to try to preserve as much as we can inside it. And then on the back where the parking lot will be, that’s going to be an entirely new structure. It will be a three-story structure that will be attached to this building,” she said. “So, we’re going to do as much as we can for preservation. You don’t want to lose this history and this great, old building here.”
Alicandro said the Drew Company looks not only at the size of the projects it takes on but at whatever opportunities may arise from public-private partnerships.
“We look for bold transformation. And when we came here and looked at this site, we thought it fits right in with what we like to do. It doesn’t really matter the size of the project, it’s more about not just building a building, it’s about really getting entrenched with the community, really trying to make a difference, trying to transform something,” Alicandro insisted.
“We like this hotel because it has the history, we felt this really fits right in when you walk downtown. And the city, it seems like there’s so much opportunity here. I think that if we build this hotel and we do it right and get the community support, it’s going to kickstart a lot of other future opportunities here for other people to come in and open up shops, open up some other restaurants, whatever it might be, let’s draw some visitors downtown. Let’s give the locals someplace to go.
“So that’s kind of our vision. That’s why it’s interesting to us. And then of course you have to make the economics work and hopefully, our vision will allow us to do that and be successful.”