ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke has pressed pause on a plan that would have added more hotel rooms and parking to downtown Roanoke.
Marc Nelson, the Economic Development Manager for Roanoke City, told 10 News that the city wants to see how downtown bounces back from the COVID-19 pandemic before taking on the additional expense of a new parking garage.
He said the city is still committed to bringing another hotel downtown.
“You want to be prudent with the city’s resources and with taxpayer money so we just felt like it was good to take pause and then come back and revisit at a later date,” said Nelson.
He added that there is no timeline to revisit the plan, but said he is confident the city will make a comeback.
In September 2018, Roanoke City Council unanimously approved the project, which would have added a Marriott hotel and parking garage with more than 500 spaces to downtown.
As part of the plan, Roanoke would have paid $2.2 million for the parking lot at the corner of Church Avenue and Williamson Road that’s currently owned by Market Holdings LLC.
The planned Marriott hotel would have had between 125 and 150 rooms.
Below is our story from 2018 when the project got the green light: