What will Mecklenburg do with $10M hotel? Its homelessness strategy offers clues.
Mecklenburg County is spending $10.5 million to buy a hotel in southwest Charlotte that will provide housing and social and health services for people who are chronically homeless.
County Commissioners this week approved the purchase, though did not discuss plans for its use. A county spokesperson confirmed the property, the TownePlace Suites by Marriott Charlotte Arrowood, will be used for permanent supportive housing, but provided no further details.
The purchase price includes acquisition and improvements, Board Chair George Dunlap said. The 94-room hotel is near Interstate 77 on Forest Point Boulevard.
Creating affordable housing for people with the lowest incomes is among the biggest challenges for local governments and nonprofits. There is a particularly great need for more permanent supportive housing, leaders say, which provides services like case management and medical care for people who are chronically homeless.
Hotel purchases for affordable housing is among the recommendations laid out in the 2025 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing and Homelessness Strategy, which launched last year.
That strategy calls for creating “hotel/motel acquisition strategies for permanent supportive housing and mixed-income housing between 30-60%” of the area median income. That is between $22,750 and $40,440 for an individual.
Purchasing a hotel is a new type of housing investment for Mecklenburg County, but the concept has been under consideration for some time.
In March 2021, shortly after county officials cleared a large tent encampment outside uptown, county staff offered an array of potential solutions to increase housing options for people experiencing homelessness. Many were temporarily given housing in a hotel under a county lease.
Stacy Lowry, director of community support services for the county, told commissioners that buying vacant or underused hotels “can provide communities a cost effective way to scale affordable mixed income housing solutions while also supporting the local economy.”
Roof Above announced it had purchased an 88-unit hotel in southwest Charlotte in late 2020 with plans to transform it into studio apartments for people experiencing chronic homelessness. The supportive housing plan includes case managers and a nurse on site.
The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte last month bought a west Charlotte hotel that provides shelter, case management and other services for up to 100 families. The nonprofit had been renting rooms there for several months before it purchased the building, with funding from the city, county and state.
Cities across the country like Los Angeles are exploring similar hotel purchases, spurred on by hits to the tourism industry during the pandemic and the persistent shortage of affordable housing.
TownePlace Suites is currently owned by Tennessee-based 3H Group, Inc., according to county property records.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 11:48 AM.
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