BRASELTON – New owners, new décor and a new atmosphere: that’s the message beginning to rise from Chateau Elan.
The 275-room resort, winery, golf complex, conference center, et cetera, founded in the early 1980’s by entrepreneur Don Panoz, is now undergoing a major facelift according to General Manager Ed Walls. Walls has been General Manager since August, shortly after new owners Wheelock Street Capital of Greenwich, Connecticut, announced plans to invest $25-million in upgrading the facility.
Walls was the featured speaker at Tuesday morning’s meeting of the South Hall Business Coalition, held on the 3500-acre campus. The Coalition is a branch of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce.
Explaining the decision to renovate, Walls said, “Chateau Elan has been here for a long time but it probably has not been invested in recently.”
“When Wheelock bought it (January, 2018) they looked at it as an opportunity to really reposition the hotel as a high-end, luxury resort that competes with the likes of The Ritz-Carlton at Lake Oconee and the Biltmore up in Asheville,” Walls said.
Work on the project is already underway according to Walls. “All the guestrooms (and suites) are going to get totally redone. We’re working on that right now; we have the fifth floor ‘out-of-order’. It hasn’t been touched in about ten years.”
Walls said work is beginning soon on the massive glass atrium, the hotel lobby, the multiple restaurants in the conference center and the winery. He said all new signage was coming to the complex and that the logo – which has been in place since the beginning - would be changed.
Walls said that Atlanta design firm Blur Workshop was overseeing the design elements coming to Chateau Elan. Blur Workshop, he explained, plans to bring in a more-local motif, incorporating the natural geographical elements of northeast Georgia, particularly the rolling hills and pine forests. “We want to capture the look and the feel of where we are.”
“We’re not going to be an in-your-face vineyard,“ Walls said. He said all aspects of the region would be evidenced in the new décor. “I think Country Chic is kind of the look the design group was going for.”
Walls said broadening Chateau Elan’s appeal through the new décor was critical. “You wouldn’t know it when you look at the resort from the outside but 65-percent of our business is with groups.”
“By the end of October we should be totally wrapped up,” Walls said. “Right now they’re on schedule and I feel pretty good about it.”
