Developer defends $20 million Lake Norman hotel, spa and cottage homes project
Facing a largely hostile crowd, longtime Lake Norman developer Jake Palillo defended his proposed $20 million Sam Furr Road Inn project at Cornelius Town Hall Tuesday night.
Nearly 600 people have signed a petition against the project, which includes a two-story, 40-room hotel, seven cottage homes and a spa on 6.3 acres at Mayes and Sam Furr roads.
The petition describes Mayes Road as “a narrow rural road not designed for commercial traffic. N.C. 73 (Sam Furr Road) already carries 20,000+ vehicles per day and left turn movements onto Mayes Road are dangerous.”
The state’s plan to widen the highway could further restrict left turns, according to the petition. And clearing mature vegetation from the property would destroy wildlife habitat and send more stormwater runoff into the Rocky River and Clarke Creek watersheds, according to the petition.
“Like an old English country inn”
Fifty residents attended Tuesday night’s community meeting held by the developer before he takes his rezoning request before the Cornelius Planning Board and the Cornelius Board of Commissioners.
Cornelius planning staff are scheduled to give a presentation about the request to the Board of Commissioners at 6 p.m. May 4 at Town Hall, Cornelius Senior Planner Aaron Tucker told the crowd Wednesday. The request would then go before the Cornelius Planning Board and again before the Board of Commissioners for rulings at meetings to be announced.
The town requires developers seeking rezonings to hold a community meeting before the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners will consider the requests.
Only one resident spoke in favor of the project Tuesday night. The rest said the development will only worsen already bad Lake Norman traffic and crams too many homes into what they called too tight a space.
“It’s like a three-ring circus on the moon!” a woman shouted about the development.
Several others likewise shouted at Palillo, who remained unfazed in touting what he called the need for the inn and highlighting its higher-end architecture.
The hotel would look “like an old English country inn” and “a really big grand home” with stone, Palillo said.
Nightly room rentals would range from near $300 to near $400, he said.
“There really isn’t a nice place to stay” north of Charlotte like his planned inn, he said.
Rental cottages at the inn would flank a “formal green,” according to an architect’s sketch filed with the rezoning request. The one-story cottages would be 900 to 1,200 square feet, Palillo said.
The development also would include an outdoor pool-courtyard.
Palillo said he lives on Black Farms Road in Huntersville near the project and wants only the best in his developments.
“Every project I’ve done is a major quality-of-life” development, he said.
Palillo last made headlines in 2023 with his ill-fated, $800 million Lagoona Bay development off Interstate 77 exit 25 in Huntersville.
The project, east of the interstate on Sam Furr Road, called for a 40-acre “modern lifestyle beach resort” with a 10-acre freshwater lagoon, within a 270-acre residential development. Palillo pulled the plans after intense public opposition.
Pool, courtyard, “formal green”
Palillo was up front with Tuesday’s crowd. Under the property’s zoning, he said, he could build a large home and rent its 10 to 12 rooms, weekly or monthly. He could put a bed and breakfast there, or a pig farm without having to seek a rezoning, he said.
He disputed a resident’s claim that the hotel would have 24/7 activity. The resident said he’d worked in hotels for years and knows the activity they breed.
Palillo said he’s stayed at Hiltons, Hampton Inns and many other hotels, and they’re quiet overnight.
“You can lay in the lobby naked and no one will see you,” he said referring to overnight hours in such hotels.
Palillo said he’ll put something on the land one way or the other.
“I’m not going to sit on a piece of property,” he said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 11:56 AM.