Westin Hotel/Conference Center Planned for Douglas County

The Merrill Trust Group has already developed the 14,000-acre Foxhall Resort and Sporting Club on the Chattahoochee River. Now it wants to add a 350-room hotel and conference center under the Westin hotel brand.

The group is in the process of raising $100 million for the hotel and a golf course, but it also needs $38.9 million in bonds from the county which would pay for the conference center and surrounding infrastructure improvements.

Chris Pumphrey leads the Development Authority of Douglas County. He says the plan has been in the works for four years, but county commissioners just got their first look at the finished proposal.

“What we’re looking at are bringing in things that help diversify our tax base, bringing the interest to the area of the community and will allow us to better market the surroundings properties around there,” said Pumphrey.

Douglas County got hit hard during the recession, especially with foreclosures, and needs the increased tax revenue. Pumphrey says the target audience for the hotel and conference center would be corporate groups.

Pumphrey says there is plenty of due diligence still ahead. But if plans gel, the facility could open by late 2015.