Raleigh city leaders on Tuesday joined developers of the Omni Raleigh Hotel to unveil the re-imagined Lichtin Plaza.
The plaza is located in front of the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts and across the street from the new hotel, which is currently under construction on Fayetteville Street.
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As construction is ongoing on the hotel, Lichtin Plaza is also getting a makeover with more green space, a dedicated lane for dropoffs and wheelchair accessibility.
The Omni Raleigh is a nearly 600-room hotel located at 10 W. South St.
"It was really clear to us that there was the need for a luxury hotel to serve as the center of town for Raleigh and also serve as a primary convention center hotel," said Chief Commercial Officer for Omni Hotels & Resorts Jeff Doane said.
Its key features include a resort-style spa with hot and cold therapies (hot tubs, steam rooms, saunas, cold plunges, red light recovery tables and compression pods), a sports bar with an outdoor patio and golf simulator, a rooftop pool with restaurant, North Carolina’s first Bob’s Steak & Chop House and a coffee shop by Raleigh-based Peter Millar, a luxury clothing brand.
"[The hotel] will put us in a position to not only attract larger conventions, but to also layer conventions in the convention center simultaneously," said Dennis Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. "More visitors mean more nights in hotels, more meals in our restaurants and more support for our local businesses."
The hotel's construction comes as a nearly 300,000-square-foot expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center is underway. The nearby Red Hat Amphitheater is being relocated to a larger space next to the existing site.
Fayetteville Street restaurant owner Anthony Ropilla hopes the projects mean bigger crowds and a bigger bottom line.
"I think it was a risk to come to Fayetteville Street, especially since directly post Covid, it was kind of a dead zone," Ropilla said. "Hopefully they can continue to activate the block."
The City of Raleigh has issued $75 million in bonds to help pay for the Omni's public amenities.
"Making sure that we are taking the hotel/motel tax, reinvesting that into these types of projects to build our tourist capacity," Mayor Janet Cowell said.
The hotel is scheduled to open in late 2028.