Builder Pitches Collierville Hotel by Carriage Crossing

The Commercial Appeal

By Daniel Connelly

Members of the Grant homebuilding family are proposing a new four-story, 110-room hotel by the Carriage Crossing shopping center in Collierville.

Developer Carey Grant jokes that he plays monopoly for a living: He builds houses first, then hotels. Along with his father Milton Grant and his brother Kevin Grant, he’s one of the owners of the company Southern Hospitality LLC.

The company already owns the Courtyard by Marriott at the shopping center, and it aims to build a second hotel on Collierville Road between Tenn. 385 and the shopping center, Carey Grant said.

Guests could walk from the hotel to restaurants and shopping at Carriage Crossing.

Carey Grant said the family expected a competitor to build a hotel in the area sooner or later, so they decided to go ahead and build one first. The hotel will be branded as a Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott. It will cater more to leisure travelers than does the Courtyard by Marriott, he said.

He estimated the overall cost of land and construction for the new hotel at $12 million to $14 million.  “I’m excited about it,” he said. “Collierville is the place to be.”

The Fairfield Inn and Suites will be only the second hotel the company has developed after the Courtyard by Marriott, Grant said. If all goes according to plan, construction will start sometime in the summer of 2017 and finish by December 2018, he said.

The concept will likely be presented early in January at a meeting of the Planning Commission and a subsequent meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the town’s Economic Development Director John Duncan said Monday.

“Well for me, it’s an exciting product for our market as we continue to grow our corporate headquarters business,” said Duncan. He said the hotel could serve consultants, clients and vendors for companies such as FedEx, which has a big information technology center in town.