Upscale Hotel Development Proposed for Empty Lot Near County Courthouse

Cumberland County leaders want a developer to build an upscale, full-service hotel with 126 rooms, meeting space, a restaurant, and a rooftop bar on Gillespie Street in front of the county courthouse in downtown Fayetteville.

No price has been publicly discussed for the project. No decision has been made on how the project may work out—whether it would be a private project, or a public-private partnership between the county and a developer.

The next step, a consultant told the Board of County Commissioners on Monday, is to begin the process of seeking potential developers who would submit proposals.

Site of Defunct Event Center Project

The Cumberland, as the project is dubbed in a placeholder name of a presentation to commissioners on Monday, would sit on a former parking lot. It’s also the location where the county, under different leadership in October 2024, began construction of a 3,000-seat events and performance venue called the Crown Event Center.

The current Board of Commissioners halted the Event Center project in March 2025 and canceled it in June 2025, citing escalating costs and concerns about parking.

The county began seeking another development for the former parking lot. 

Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp., and hospitality industry consultant Robert Vitale of REVPAR International presented a proposal for The Cumberland Hotel to the Board of Commissioners on Monday night.

“We’ve got a unique opportunity to tell our authentic story through this property here and we’d like to be able to push it forward, but that ultimately has to meet your expectations,” he said.

The property could host weddings, special events, anniversaries, and community events, Van Geons told the board, and bring in associations that need accommodations for their activities.

“We think the weekends are going to be a real area of opportunity for social business, for weddings and so on, because this is a more unique property than is in the market area,” Vitale said.

The hotel could be what the hospitality industry calls a “soft brand,” Vitale said, which means it would be connected to a major hotel chain but retain its local identity.

“I can tell you that the 80-to-150 room, small full-service hotel is going through a big wave of popularity right now,” Vitale said. “Where food and beverage, interior design, storytelling, authenticity is something that’s been on everyone’s minds, not just in hotels, but in other consumer products as well.

A Hotel With 6 Stories, 126 Rooms

The hotel and related properties would take up an entire city block on Gillespie Street, in between the old 1926 courthouse on one side, and the current county courthouse and Cumberland County Law Enforcement Center buildings on the other side.

According to the documents in Van Geons’ and Vitale’s slideshow and their comments on Monday, the project entails:

• A six-story hotel with 126 guest rooms, including some configured as suites.
• A signature restaurant and bar, a rooftop bar and lounge, and a private terrace courtyard.
• A 4,500-square-foot ballroom with seating for 600 people or table seating for 200. There also would be a 1,000-square-foot meeting room and a 500-square-foot board room.
• The property could be expanded to add another 11,000 square feet of meeting space.

The project also includes a small public park and up to three retail parcels—if one of these is not used to expand the meeting space. Plans call for  a parking garage with 272 spaces at first; the garage could later add 164 spaces, bringing the total parking to 436 spaces.

Residential units could be built above the retail properties, Van Geons said.

Close to Downtown Amenities

The hotel would be within walking distance of downtown amenities that draw tourists from out of town: Segra Stadium, home of Minor League Baseball’s Fayetteville Woodpeckers; the U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum; and Festival Park, the site of concerts, the Dogwood Festival, and other big downtown events. It would be a block away from the Market House, the historic downtown focal point that is undergoing a renovation..

The Cumberland would also be across the street from the planned Black Voices Museum, a $175 million, 83,000-square-foot project to be built on a privately owned parking lot between Person Street and Otis Jones Parkway. Money is being raised for that project.

Downtown Fayetteville has other hospitality accommodations with short-term rentals of apartments and condominiums, and the American Eagle Inn on Person Street, about a half-mile from The Cumberland’s site.

The public release of plans for The Cumberland comes as another hotel, with 119 rooms, is slated to begin construction on top of the city-owned Hay Street parking deck next to Segra Stadium. And this comes as Mayor Mitch Colvin has called for construction of a convention center to be built downtown after county commissioners canceled their plans to build the Crown Event Center downtown.

“We’ve asked our county manager to engage with the city manager to have discussions on the project in downtown Fayetteville that we talked about earlier,” commissioners Chair Kirk deViere said late Monday. “We look forward to having those discussions with our city partners.”

The Cumberland and the other hotel atop the Hay Street parking deck would be the first new hotels to open in the downtown area since the Prince Charles Hotel on Hay Street went out of business in the 2010s. The Prince Charles was later converted into apartments.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

Did you find this story useful or interesting? It was made possible by donations from readers like you to the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation so CityView can bring you more news and information like this.