GREENSBORO -- A 22-month renovation of the Sheraton Greensboro and Koury Convention Center is complete. It's not the first remake of the 45-year old hotel and convention center, but at $30 million, it's the largest.
Officials said the 1,000,000 people who use the facility each year deserve and expect an updated look.
"The people coming right now seeing this hotel, it's a brand new, fresh, that's the picture they've got in their head,” said general manager Mo Milani. “You can't have a halfway product when they show up, so you always have to keep it up."
Initial work included resurfacing the parking lot, painting the hotel's exterior and installing a new canopy. There are energy efficient windows, new fire alarm systems, elevator bays and interior and exterior lighting; even a redesigned heating and air conditioning system.
"We decided to bring fresh air into the hallways and into the rooms," said Milani.
Hallways include new carpet and wallpaper. But what may leave guests with the most lasting memories are the hotel's 1,016 rooms. All of them have been remade.
"All the fabric, all the carpet, bedding, linen, furniture, lighting," said Kelly Harrill, director of sales.
"We took all the bathtubs out in the rooms, and we put the rain shower in there, which is phenomenal," Milani said.
The convention center and the hotel's size make the combined facility a huge economic driver for the city, so the remake was the right move.
"By serving as a host hotel has over $150 million economic impact to our community last year alone,” said Harrill. "If you took this property out of this city, we'd lose out on a lot of things."
Harrill called the finished product 'remarkable,' a transformation made while the hotel remained open for business. Guest reaction has made it all worthwhile.
"It's one of those things that has a 'wow factor' to it,” he said. “You see it in your guests' eyes.”
Business developer Joseph Koury opened the hotel as a 250-room Holiday Inn in 1970. The facility became a Sheraton Hotel in 2000.