JAMES CITY COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) — Another Williamsburg area hotel is set to close amid years of declining visitation in the Historic Triangle.
Last Tuesday, the James City County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for the Fort Magruder Hotel and Conference Center that will allow the 303-room hotel to be transformed into 126 market rate and “affordable” apartments.
In addition, 32,000 square feet of retail is being proposed.
The complex is at least the 20th hotel to close in the Williamsburg area over the last 20 years, without new hotel rooms planned in their place.
This time, at least one supervisor is concerned about what it could mean for a new taxpayer-funded resource meant to boost hotel stays.
Built in 1976, the sprawling hotel sits on nine acres off Pocahontas Trail just south of the line with the city of Williamsburg.
While the hotel has had several names throughout the years, including Crowne Plaza, for the last decade it’s been named after the fort built to defend Williamsburg during the Civil War. A redoubt can still be seen on the grounds.
A Virginia rail fence, stockade walls and replica cannons have lined the front of the property for much of the last decade as a part of theming.
However, like in much of the Historic Triangle region, hotel stays have been on the decline.
Vernon Geddy III, an attorney representing the properties proposed buyers, said the hotel had been struggling for several years and had been for sale.
“On a [recent] Tuesday afternoon when a lot of people were in town, … there are two cars in the parking lot, one of which was mine,” Geddy said.
Conserve Holdings LLC, a company based out of Toms River, New Jersey that owns the adjacent Grand Village at Williamsburg complex, is proposing to buy the property from its current Maryland-based owner to create “The Foundery at Williamsburg.”
“It’s the adaptive reuse of an aging and underutilized property through a multi-million dollar renovation to provide quality affordable workforce force and market rate housing in commercial space, which we think would be a great benefit to the county and the community at large,” Geddy said.
Plans call for 36 one-bedroom units and 90 two-bedroom units, with 40% of them being classified as affordable and workforce housing. Rent would follow the policy of 60%, 80%, and 120% of the Area Median income. Geddy noted that the range of each would vary based on family size.
The cannons, zig-zag fence and stockade will all be removed, according to plans submitted to the county, as will the tennis courts.
However, the 1.1 acres of park land, including the redoubt, the indoor and outdoor pools and the fitness room and a meeting/lounge area will remain.
“We need that kind of thing,” Supervisor Barbara Null said. “We need to be able to use these buildings instead of tearing them down, so I’m very happy about that.”
But it doesn’t necessarily please Supervisor Ruth Larson, especially when the more than $80 million Williamsburg Sports and Events Center is under construction next to the Colonial Williamsburg Visitors Center. The 200,000-square-foot sports center is expected to open in 2026.
“I’m disappointed to see a hotel go and see those rooms be lost because we know already, I believe, we have booked 40 weekends in the first year of the sports center,” Larson said, “Some of these tournaments are quite large in every piece of rooms that we have. I hate to see those rooms leave our inventory.”
Larson noted no new hotel has opened in James City County in 20 years. She hopes new investors aren’t concerned with the conversion.
There’s no word yet on when the hotel could close for good.
