Featured photo courtesy of Sila Development
Story by Noah McLane
MTSU leadership wants to bring a $26 million hotel and family-friendly sports bar to campus by fall 2027.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee believes the development would boost recruitment and enhance campus experiences for students, alumni as well as Murfreesboro community members, according to public records obtained by Sidelines. On Sept. 3, Mcphee issued an intent to award Sila Developments the contract for the MTSU public-private hotel, but a final deal has not been made.
“The hotel development concept includes a four-story 122 [room] hotel developed on the existing Middle Tennessee parking lot on the southeast corner of Middle Tennessee Boulevard and Greenland Drive intersection, and in the following months, MTSU staff will enter into a final negotiation with the company as well as finalized legal agreements and proceed with the development,” McPhee said at a board of trustees meeting in September 2024.
The four-story hotel plans to offer job training for MTSU programs, including Hospitality & Tourism and Fermentation Sciences, according to Sila’s most recent request for proposal.
The parties plan to enter a landlord-tenant style lease agreement for 40 years with the option for two 10-year extensions, according to the documents. Sila takes on the multi-million construction and development costs.
Sila indicated the hotel will be an Aloft Hotel from the Marriott brand.
After 60 years, the hotel transfers to MTSU ownership–along with operating costs, according to the proposed lease agreement.
Construction should take approximately 14 months.
Sila did not provide a groundbreaking date but said it “hopes to incorporate students in every step of this hotel’s development, construction and operation,” according to records filed last July.
Under the proposed lease, MTSU would receive $90,000 annually in rent and 1% of the available funds after paying business expenses and debts. Silas’ projections estimate MTSU to make $176,000 in year one of operation.
The hotel is the latest in a series of multimillion-dollar building projects taken on by MTSU, like classrooms at the Shelbyville Municipal Airport, the School of Concrete and Construction Management building and the Academic Classroom Building.
Challenges
No university project is complete without layers of bureaucracy. The hotel is no exception.
One of the most significant and time-consuming hurdles for the development is rezoning.
Sila needs to acquire five zoning permits from Murfreesboro to build the hotel, which could take up to a year.
Sila’s market research found nine hotels within a three-mile radius of MTSU and 38 if that radius expands to five miles. The five-mile radius totals nearly 3,400 hotel rooms.
The on-campus hotel would add around 120 rooms to the radius, claiming just under a 4% market share.
CoStar, a market analysis company that gathers commercial property data, said 384 metropolitan areas where hotel data is available and found a 10% average increase in population was accompanied by a 6% increase in hotel room count.
Murfreesboro’s population has boomed in the past 15 years, growing by 40% between 2010 and 2020—and another estimated 8% between 2020 and now, according to U.S. Census data.
In the coming months, MTSU staff enter into final negotiations with Sila, finalize legal agreements, and proceed with the development, according to McPhee.
Noah McLane is the Lead News Reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
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