In January 2019, a press release announcing the groundbreaking of The Haywood hotel in El Dorado said it would open in April 2020. Our development team had every reason to believe the opening would be on time or close to it. From bad weather to material shortages, the reality of our industry is that projects inevitably get delayed.
The Haywood opened six months later than scheduled, in October 2020. The coronavirus pandemic had shut things down. Manufacturers had been furloughed, and shipping came in stops and starts. Our architects and general contractor, the subcontractors, the vendors, an obsessive interiors duo charged with the arduous task of making The Haywood, in words taken from its official brand book, “a modern take on southern life … sleek, vibrant … an unparalleled alternative to the conventional hotel stay …”— all these people, despite never slowing down, couldn’t stop things from slowing down.
The Haywood is four stories and 70 rooms, a rectangular, metal-clad building with a wraparound, ceiling-fanned front patio, landscaped courtyard and pool, and The Well — a full-service bar of inlaid marble tile, stained wood, sink-down couches and side tables to put your drink on. Or drinks.
It’s located a block off El Dorado’s historic downtown square, in the heart of the multimillion-dollar Murphy Arts District (MAD). Phase 1 of MAD, completed in 2017, includes an 8,000-seat outdoor amphitheater, farmers market and 2-acre “destination playscape” for kids.
The opening of a cool hotel — distinct, different — in El Dorado was a story MAD hoped to tell in 2020. Then COVID-19 hit, then the delay.
The tireless efforts of the crew working on the hotel continued. But lockdowns meant more frequent call-ins for anyone who didn’t have to be on-site. Instead of walking corridors and guest rooms in hard hats, we relied more and more often on emailed jpegs — of those corridors and guest rooms, of the coffered lobby ceiling, of the moody fireplace den and the first-floor wood-paneled exterior — to visually track our progress.
It was OK, but nothing like being there.
Looking back, this was equally due to location and surroundings as to the building itself. The vacant downtown parking lot on which The Haywood was built had been pursued intentionally by the hotel’s owners — if not that site, then another nearby. The hotel had to be downtown or nowhere, connected to El Dorado’s award-winning Main Street community — to its boutiques and delis, its corner jewelry store, its corner bar and corner coffee shop — the city had made a priority to beautify and preserve. To any eye, downtown is El Dorado’s centerpiece.
So there it was, the centerpiece, as The Haywood opened quietly, without ceremony or fanfare.
Well over a year before, in their presentation to The Haywood ownership, our architects described their approach to the hotel’s design: Think forward while nodding to the past — and to the present. There were slides of old tin barns alongside sharp-cornered buildings with glass storefronts, a mixing pot of gumbo layering all the character and traits that make El Dorado unique. It was possible that everything could happen together, that downtowns, at their best, are urban hubs, almost state fair-like with energy — tight quarters, shared interests and the slight but real anticipation that something unexpected, or at least a little different, might happen.
Now, looking back, that presentation yielded something remarkably true to form. And the delay caused by the pandemic gave everyone who watched The Haywood being built a chance to see more of it, or at least visualize more of it from their quarantine bunkers — a fresh addition to downtown El Dorado’s skyline, to the old, repurposed beautiful brick buildings, circa 1930s and 1940s, that surrounded it. This juxtaposition worked the way it was supposed to.
I made a point of staying at The Haywood the second night it opened. I had drinks at The Well. I watched people enter, order their own drinks and become patrons. I recognized someone who worked for MAD, a local, and we spoke for a while. “It’s a great place. I hope it fills up once this craziness goes away.” Those who helped with The Haywood, those who pushed for it to happen and helped it come out of the ground, are surely biased. But this person was right.
The Haywood is a great place, connected to the community and its people. If you haven’t been there, go. And if you have, it’s time for another stay.
Ray Nolan is senior vice president of development at Newmark Moses Tucker.
