Work lights are strung down the hallway, as workers weave in and out of rooms and out of stairwells.
“It’s like a beehive,” said Brian Trotter of Ecker Construction, the Buford-based contractor on The National project in downtown Gainesville.
It won’t be long until the temporary lights, bright as they are, are down and permanent, decorative fixtures are up, and rooms smelling of fresh paint will be fully furnished and ready for guests.
“Our team continues to make significant progress as we target a late spring opening of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel,” said Jonathan Collins, president of Capstone, the project’s developer.
The seven-story, 130-room hotel that’s part of Capstone’s multi-use The National in downtown Gainesville is nearly done, while work also continues on an adjacent 157-unit, five-story apartment building.
Work could finish by late summer on the apartments, Trotter said.
Ecker Construction gave The Times an inside look last week of the development at 111 Green St., also bounded by E.E. Butler Parkway and Washington and Spring streets, with the hotel facing E.E. Butler and the apartments facing Green.
A plaza separates the hotel and apartments, with The National also featuring a parking deck on the bottom floor.
The $80 million project also includes redevelopment of the Walton Jackson building, a 35,000-square marble building that sits at Green and Washington streets.
The tour began at that location, which will feature 3,000 square feet of conference space in a building once occupied by Turnstile Deli and later Midland Station Coffee Co. The building now serves as office space for Ecker.
Also in the works next to the conference center is North Georgia BBQ, which is slated to open its third location — with the others operating in Cleveland and Dahlonega — sometime this year, co-owner Matt Harper has said.
The National’s appearance may seem familiar, especially to longtime residents.
The project will incorporate some of the look of the old Regions Bank, a 1960s-era structure that stood on the property before its demolition last year.
For those watching the construction progress, one steady presence has been the crane soaring above the project. It will be removed in March or April, Trotter said.
“It will take an even bigger crane to disassemble it,” he said.
In an update last June of the project at a Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce meeting, Capstone Chairman Jeff Payne said monthly apartment rents could run between $1,400-$1,500 and low $2,000s. Hotel room rates weren’t available at the time.
The apartment building, featuring one- and two-bedroom units, will be targeted to young professionals, including hospital interns, and “empty-nesters who don’t want the big house anymore but want to be where they can walk to town and have dinner,” Payne said in June.
Overall, Capstone officials said they’re excited to add to Gainesville’s fast-developing downtown, where residents are watching as other developments, such as Gainesville Renaissance and Bourbon Brothers, take shape.
“We look forward to delivering such a tremendous asset to our community,” Collins said.
