Recent years have seen several projects of considerable scale break ground and deliver around downtown Roswell, but there’s one component the city feels it still lacks: hotel space, for channeling in visitors and their business-boosting spending.
Enter: The Hotel Chambray.
Initially revealed in early 2024, the Chambray calls for a five-story, boutique lodge with 125 keys at a site where Alpharetta Highway meets Fraser Street in Roswell, about two blocks east of the food-and-beverage destination Canton Street has become. Two new restaurants and a coffee bar are also part of the hotel plans.
The flagship project is slated to rise immediately north of the multifaceted Southern Post development, which replaced a 1960s strip mall.
JdV by Hyatt; designs, Matt Mitchell Design
The planned hotel site, where Alpharetta Highway meets Fraser Street, in relation to historic downtown Roswell landmarks. Google Maps
Last week, the Roswell City Council voted to approve the city’s first loan under a new initiative called the Roswell Development Finance Program, or RDFP, to help move the Chambray hotel forward.
The RDFP is designed to support commercial development meant to fill a downtown need, such as boutique hotel projects, that might otherwise be difficult to finance through third parties. It provides access to long-term, fixed-rate capital for developments that will feature water conservation, energy efficiency, and resiliency improvement by way of a voluntary special tax assessment repayment structure. According to city leadership, the program will not result in financial liability for the city, which will merely administer funding.
Funding will be provided by Nuveen Green Capital. Hotel project leadership estimated in 2024 the Chambray will cost roughly $30 million to develop.
JdV by Hyatt; designs, Matt Mitchell Design
Plans for two of Chambray's food-and-beverage concepts, including fifth-floor Okujo.
JdV by Hyatt; designs, Matt Mitchell Design
City leaders believe the Chambray hotel will mark the first of several projects to be supported by the RDFP model.
Roswell has become “a thriving destination for business, dining, recreation, and the arts, and additional hotel capacity is vital to supporting that growth,” Mayor Kurt Wilson said in a funding announcement. “This financing program positions us to attract high-quality hospitality projects while ensuring no financial risk to the city or taxpayers.”
The Hyatt JdV Collection hotel, set to be developed by DSM Real Estate Partners, will be located at 1075 Alpharetta St.
Plans call for a coffee and pastry bar in an art-filled lobby. On the rooftop, a sushi concept called Okujo is planned with indoor and outdoor dining.
Onos, a coastal mediterranean restaurant and bar, will occupy street-level space, with a second-floor outdoor dining space facing the rear, per the development team.
The site, at center, as seen along Alpharetta Highway in early 2023, with the Southern Post development just to the south. Google Maps
Construction schedules call for opening the Chambray in summer 2027. According to city officials, it’s expected to generate about 350 construction jobs and 30 permanent ones.
On the flipside of downtown, a Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants property was announced as part of the larger West Alley Roswell development several years ago, but that project has stalled. Development officials have said early planning phases continue at the partially cleared site.
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