About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2020)
r No. 5 Flowery Branch gearing fs up to face top-ranked Marist in 2nd round of plavoffs. sports, ib mt mmts Gainesville Bowling Center is newly renovated and ready for you. life, 2b Midweek Edition - DECEMBER 2-3,2020 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local Hotel to anchor $50 million project Development will encircle old Region Bank, one city block and part of second block BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com A seven-story, 130-room Court yard by Marriott hotel is planned for downtown Gainesville as the centerpiece of a $50 million rede velopment project to also include convention space, apartments, out door plaza and dining areas. The four-building develop ment, which will be known as The National, was billed in a press release Tuesday, Dec. 1, as “Ava- lon-like,” referring to the highly touted “live-work-play” commu nity in Alpharetta. Groundbreaking is tentatively planned by mid-year 2021 with completion by December 2022. “From the emerging Renais sance project on the downtown square to major ongoing devel opment in midtown, the city of Gainesville is on a roll, and The National will be one more prized jewel in the crown that puts us on the map of the state’s most desir able places to live and work,” said Jonathan Collins, president of Cap stone Property Group. The development will encircle the old Regions Banks — originally 1st National Bank of Gainesville — and occupy one city block and part of a second block. Capstone Property Group LLC, purchased the iconic bank from local investment group 111 Green Street LLC in August 2019 with initial plans to convert it into a 50-room hotel. The Courtyard hotel, employing about 50, will sit next door to the former bank building at 111 Green St., providing “much-needed sup port for recruitment of business and medical professionals,” the press release says, quoting Collins. The bank will be restored to accommodate “contemporary meeting space and single bedroom suites,” according to the press release. The bank’s former lobby on the ground floor will be converted into “adaptable meeting space that can be separated into two rooms or used as one larger area capable of seating up to nearly 200 for a meeting or banquet under a grand 20-foot ceiling.” Above the convention area will be four floors of one-bedroom rental suites, which “will be designed for graduate students and young professionals desiring a downtown lifestyle.” “The bank building will be restored to preservation standards that maintain its familiar architec tural integrity,” Collins said. The third building on the one- block site will feature five stories of 50 luxury apartments atop a two-story parking deck. The “Resi dences at the National” will include 10 living units per floor with five ■ Please see HOTEL, 7A NGHS hits record virus numbers NGHS Confirmed Patients with COVID-19 • Confirmed patients being treated for COVID-19 at an NGHS facility from Nov. 1 -Dec. 1 J I L Nov. 1 Nov. 15 Nov. 25 Dec. 1 Nov. 5 Nov. 10 Nov. 20 Hall finishes recount today BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Hall County has finished rescanning ballots in its recount of the presidential race as the state’s dead line of midnight tonight approaches and a senior state elections official called on the president himself to calm tensions in Georgia. Hall began on Nov. 24 and finished Saturday, Nov. 28. Results will be reported by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. Georgia counties previously did a hand recount of all ballots cast in the Nov. 3 presidential race. That ■ Please see RECOUNT, 5A 31 displaced in apartment fires BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com AND JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Medical Center running out of beds as COVID cases soar BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Northeast Georgia Health System reported a new record Tuesday, Dec. 1, of confirmed COVID-19 positive patients being treated at its facilities. According to NGHS data, there were 181 confirmed patients being treated with another 52 patients awaiting test results. There were 106 patients at the Gainesville hospital and 49 patients at the Braselton hospital with the rest at other facilities, according to the data. “We’re close to the point where we’re going to either have to send patients elsewhere or come up with some different ideas,” said Dr. Clifton Hastings, Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s chief of medical staff, on Tues day. “We’ve stretched and built about as much as we can. ” ■ Please see COVID, 7A THOMAS HARTWELL I The Times A Northeast Georgia Medical Center employee prepares to enter a patient room in the hospital’s mobile COVID-19 unit on Oct. 15. Inside Home destroyed after early morning fire on Spring Road, 4A Thirty-one people were displaced by fires Mon day, Nov. 30, and Tues day, Dec. 1, at Versailles Apartments at 1687 Park Hill Drive in Gainesville, according to fire officials. No injuries were reported. Four apartments in the D building at the complex were damaged by either fire or smoke and water, Gainesville Fire spokesman Keith Smith said. Salvation Army of Gainesville Lt. Andre Pereira ■ Please see FIRES, 4A We’re looking for the helpers This year has been a tough time for us all, but beyond the pandemic, politics, protests, economic woes and general upheaval of 2020, there have been an incredible number of acts of human kindness worthy of recognition. Please share with us your stories of great kindness, and we will publish some of them for all to enjoy during the holiday season. Email to news@ gainesvilletimes.com with the subject line “Helpers.” Include your city of residence and a phone number so a reporter can follow up. Photos can also be submitted. DEATHS 8A Charmon Bailey, 49 Rhonda Beasley, 67 Willis Brown, 82 Clair Bulloch, 88 Mae Cantrell, 79 Ruby Cook, 81 Elizabeth Crania, 68 John Currier, 94 Regina Garcia, 69 Sophia Garcia, 19 Jewell Gilstrap, 85 Nadwa Hadad, 84 Patricia Kollar James Lamb, 83 Doris Leachman, 77 Gene Logan, 80 Paul Mayer Mary Moore, 78 Dovie Myers Joyce Neal, 72 Patricia Parson, 73 Tom Phelps, Sr., 78 Charles Potts, 89 Robert Puckett, 60 Reggie Pugh, 72 Maynard Richards, 66 Raven Sampson, 44 Jeremy Shelton, 49 Harvey Sullens, 48 Franklin Tucker, 83 Serenity Visbal, infant Donald Walker, 74 Dana Webb, 64 RosaLee Whitworth, 83 Barbara Wigington, 77 George Wiley, 96 Harry Wilkes, 95 Mary Wilson, 77 Maurice Wood, 87 0 *40901 06835 8 We will make it through this, and the strength of hope will shine brightly. EH NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL ■ ■■I ■■■nini
