Back in mid-February, Carowinds announced an agreement for a new 130-room SpringHill Suites Charlotte at Carowinds to break ground in the spring of 2018. The new hotel is located along the South Carolina and North Carolina border at the northeast corner of the property along I-77 on what is called Catawba Trace. The hotel will provide year round accommodations that are ideally located adjacent to the amusement park, shopping, and future development.
Civil engineering plans for the hotel development have now been approved and the property is one step closer to breaking ground.
The new hotel will feature an exterior courtyard with pool, an outdoor seating area with a fire pit, and an abundance of new landscaping featuring 66 new trees (only 18 were required) and over 1,000 shrubs, perennials, and ornamental grasses.
The new hotel uses approximately 3 acres of a 24.16 acre parcel on the North Carolina side of the property. Leaving approximately 21 acres for future development northwest of the hotel. What could Carowinds do with that land, and why would they build a hotel?
There are other hotels nearby, notably Comfort Inn at Carowinds, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson at Carowinds, Quality Inn at Carowinds, Motel 6 Charlotte Carowinds SC, and Best Western Carowinds are all across the street from the park. Sure it is nice to have your own branded hotel, but to introduce another hotel into the array must mean something deeper.
Carowinds Sports Force Park
While there have been rumblings of hints from conference calls and various small details, there has never been much concrete evidence of the success of Sports Force Park at Cedar Point being implemented at another Cedar Fair park.
The Sports Force partnership allows Cedar Point to draw in guests to participate in youth sports tournaments and includes 9 multi-purpose synthetic turf fields, featuring 4 NCAA regulation softball fields, 8 NCAA regulation soccer and lacrosse fields, 1 championship softball and baseball stadium, 1 ADA-accessible community use field and sport-specific training areas. Paying participants to tournaments each receive a ticket to Cedar Point and encourages guests to stay in park branded hotels. Phase 2 of the project, a $28M indoor sports complex is currently under development and fundraising.
Cedar Fair officials have praised the success of the Sports Force partnership and continued to explore additional avenues of implementation at other properties.
Well the new Carowinds hotel plans clearly spell out the area where the new “Sportsplex Building” would be located in the future.
It is unknown at this time whether the facility would offer indoor sports fields or traditional outside fields. Comparing the approximate 21 acres of available space with the Sports Force Park facility at Cedar Point, that would limit them to about 3 fields plus ancillary services like parking, etc. assuming they do not purchase additional parcels to the north.
Having the capabilities of your own hotel paired with a future sports facility offers an attractive package to families looking to come to Carowinds for a tournament.
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