Now that the city of Winston-Salem has full control over the Grand Pavilion Ballroom and conference rooms on the lower floor of the Embassy Suites hotel, plans are moving forward to give the space a facelift to complement the look and feel of Benton Convention Center.
When the work is done, city officials say the ballroom and conference rooms can be an extension of the Benton, which underwent a major renovation costing $20 million that finished in 2017.
The city plans to have Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG) operate the Grand Pavilion, as it already manages the Benton and the Marriott Hotel under the name Twin City Quarter.
The owner of the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Winston-Salem owes the city $800,000 for leasing the Grand Pavilion Ballroom and nearby conference areas, thanks in part to the effects
Visit Winston-Salem has rolled out the latest in a long line of marketing campaigns, hoping the timing is right to appeal to tourists, conventions and sports groups that are cautiously inching forward in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tourism agency released last week Winston-Salem s Got You Covered, which blends a montage of local destination and hotel settings with a message emphasizing heightened safety measures to reassure travelers and guests.
The campaign is aimed at state, regional and national meeting planners, along with more than 450 meeting and convention clients.
Meeting and convention bookings account for more than 30% of the Forsyth County hotel occupancy, a key portion of the taxes those hotel room stays generate.
The man accused of fatally shooting Julius Randolph Sampson Jr. outside a restaurant at Hanes Mall in 2019 maintains he can t get a fair trial due to publicity and the racial undertones of the case, according to a motion filed by his attorney last week.Â
Robert Anthony Granato, 24, is charged with first-degree murder in Sampson s death on Aug. 6, 2019. He is being held in the Forsyth County Jail on a $500,000 bond for the murder charge. Race has been at the center of the case, with some believing that Granato, who is white, shot Sampson, a married father of three who worked as a barber at Hanes Mall, because Sampson was Black. During an altercation that started inside BJ s Restaurant and Brewhouse and spilled outside, Sampson used the N-word and Granato hurled the word back.Â