Two new hotels take shape at Spanish Fort's Eastern Shore Centre
RAM Hotels' Tru by Hilton and TownePlace Suites by Marriott — together adding roughly 200 rooms to the city's east side — hit construction milestones in March, with the first slated to open this fall.
Tru by Hilton — Photo: Baldwin Citizen
Construction is underway on a pair of hotels at the east end of Eastern Shore Centre, more than two months after Mayor Brad Bass joined developers for a combined groundbreaking and topping-out ceremony at the site on March 11. (A topping-out marks the moment a building's structural frame reaches its highest point.)
The two properties — a Tru by Hilton and a TownePlace Suites by Marriott — are both being built by RAM Hotels, an Alabama family-owned developer. The company has said the Tru by Hilton is targeted to open in October. No opening date has been announced for the TownePlace Suites.
Together the hotels will offer nearly 200 guest rooms along with meeting space, according to RAM.
The hotel pads sit next to the Premiere Cinema 14 at the east end of Eastern Shore Centre. Eastern Shore Lanes — the bowling alley on the adjacent property — is visible across the parking lot. The hotel parcel had been undeveloped before this build cycle began. The shopping center itself changed hands in June 2024, when Savannah-based Wicker Park Capital Management bought the 432,000-square-foot property from Allied Development for $33.2 million, according to broker JLL Capital Markets. Birmingham's Crawford Square Real Estate Advisors has handled leasing and management for the new ownership, which said at closing it intended to elevate the tenant mix and lean further into the center's role as the Eastern Shore's main lifestyle destination. The hotel projects fit that pitch.
Experience The Eastern Shore Centre — Photo: Baldwin Citizen
The two brands aim at different stays. Tru by Hilton is Hilton's budget-leaning brand, marketed toward short trips and built around smaller rooms and a no-frills lobby. TownePlace Suites is Marriott's extended-stay brand — every room is built around an in-room kitchen as a brand standard, and the format is oriented around guests staying a week or longer.
RAM Hotels operates several branded properties around Alabama, including a Tru by Hilton in Prattville.
Casey Raines, the city's planning and zoning official, called the projects "another exciting step forward" for the city and said the partnership with RAM Hotels would "expand opportunities for visitors to stay, explore, and experience everything our community has to offer." Construction continues at the Tru by Hilton ahead of its October opening; RAM has not announced a target date for the TownePlace Suites.