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UVA breaks ground on new hotel and conference center, slated to open spring 2025

Crystal Graham
uva hotel groundbreaking
Submitted photo

The University of Virginia and its partners have broken ground on a new 223,000-square-foot hotel and conference center in Charlottesville, which is targeting a spring 2025 debut.

The hospitality center, whose official name will be revealed at a future date, will be managed by Pyramid Global Hospitality.

“We are pleased to partner with the University to bring Charlottesville and the academic community an incredible new gathering point along the Emmet-Ivy corridor,” said Ellen Sinclair, senior vice president, Pyramid Global Hospitality. “The intentional, sustainable design of this new hotel and conference space will be excellent, no doubt advancing the University’s mission to be great and good in all they do. Pyramid Global Hospitality will bring the same dedication to excellence to the guest experience come 2025.”

The hotel and conference center is expected to anchor UVA’s emerging and strategically important Emmet-Ivy corridor. It aims to be a destination property and convening space for guests and visitors to the University, its local community, faculty, staff, students and conference attendees.

The hotel’s 214 guestrooms and suites will be a convenient, centrally located choice for all those visiting UVA and the Charlottesville area. There will be 25,000 square feet of technologically advanced meeting and event space, including a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, which will be the largest in Charlottesville. The meeting and event venue will be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and will conform to the University’s 2030 sustainability goals.

“This will be a crossroads for the University – and the University’s front door,” said UVA’s President Jim Ryan in a news release. “The hotel and conference center will play an important role as a place where people can gather and stay – prospective students and their parents; data scientists, faculty from the Law School can meet there with members of the Medical School faculty. This will be a bridge that makes the community stronger, bring worlds together in ways that are predictable and unpredictable.”

Those present at the Oct. 6 groundbreaking celebration included:

  • Jim Ryan, president of UVA
  • Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, executive vice president and COO of UVA
  • Tim Rose, CEO of the UVA Foundation
  • Colette Sheehy, UVA’s senior vice president for operations and state government relations
  • Stephen Brockman, partner at Deborah Berke Partners
  • David Keith, CEO of Hanbury Architects
  • Ellen Sinclair, senior vice president, Pyramid Global Hospitality
  • Hal Powell, sales & marketing, Pyramid Global Hospitality

Crystal Graham

Crystal Graham

Crystal Abbe Graham is the regional editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1999 graduate of Virginia Tech, she has worked for 25 years as a reporter and editor for several Virginia publications, written a book, and garnered more than a dozen Virginia Press Association awards for writing and graphic design. She was the co-host of "Viewpoints," a weekly TV news show, and co-host of Virginia Tonight, a nightly TV news show on PBS. Her work on "Virginia Tonight" earned her a national Telly award for excellence in television.