The Block's Asheville Foundry Inn to be Hilton hotel

ASHEVILLE — The downtown Asheville Foundry Inn will be a Hilton hotel, the McLean, Virginia-based hospitality company announced Wednesday.

It will be a part of Hilton Worldwide's Curio collection, a line of luxury hotels.

“Curio properties come in all shapes and sizes, and The Asheville Foundry Inn will be one of the most distinct,” said Matt Wehling, senior vice president, development – North America, Hilton Worldwide in a prepared statement. “While it will be a new hotel, it will keep the inimitable look and feel of the buildings that have called the neighborhood home for many years.”

The property will be in the Block, the city’s historic black business district.

Members of the Asheville Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for construction of the hotel in June.

The 92-room hotel at Eagle and South Market streets is expected to open by December 2016.

Encore Lodging of Charleston, South Carolina, the developer, plans to use three existing buildings at 35 Eagle St., 51 South Market St. and 42 South Spruce St., and construct two more up to five stories tall to create the Inn.

“Not only do we want to restore the historic fabric of these buildings, we want to create a quality project that represents the standard that people in Asheville expect,” David Swentor, an Encore Lodging founding partner, said in a prepared statement.

The hotel will include a 100-seat restaurant, a 3,500-square-foot lounge with a library and fireplaces, a 3,600-square-foot luxury spa and fitness center and about 3,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church sold the three existing properties to Encore in December for $3.5 million, the Rev. John Grant told the Citizen-Times earlier this year.

Grant and church leaders explored options to develop the properties during a 25-year period, as part of an effort to revitalize the neighborhood, he said.

The land was not tax exempt because the church was not using it, and Mount Zion faced annual tax and insurance bills of $20,000.

Mount Zion couldn't afford to rehabilitate the properties or hold onto them any longer, Grant said. So church officials decided to sell.