Marriot Hotel coming to Waveland

Waveland is set to begin construction soon on a new dual brand Marriott Hotel.

Marriott’s dual brand hotel will be the city’s first hotel in the last two decades. Mayor Jay Trapani said, “The hotel project on Highway 90 has been in the works for about a year now. And it’s going happen.”

Voice of Bernie Cullen said, “We’ve never had like a Marriott or you know Fairfield the ones that are coming now. So, to me that’s really exciting and that’s a big-name hotel come into Waveland.”

“I think it’s a great opportunity to bring in tourist to our town here.”

The hotel will bring many jobs but local small businesses hope that it encourages other businesses to invest into the community as well. Sugar Pop Bakery Owner Renee Loranger said, “The hotel will help because it shows that a brand like a big business can come here and do well and it’ll encourage other businesses to come here as well.”

The hotel will make tourism easier and accessible but will make work accessible for seasonal workers in Hancock County. “The reason we want a hotel is that we have Stennis Airport, Stennis Space Center, and Port Bienville. And people come in to work at those places on a short-term basis or long-term basis. And studies show where a person stays in a hotel when they visit a place. If they happen to move to that area. That’s where they buy a house and move because they’re more familiar.”

Mayor Trapani says Waveland has been popping for quite a while and this only adds to the hype and redevelopment of a city virtually wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. “Hurricane Katrina destroyed almost 90% of Waveland. So that’s been coming back slowly. The pace has picked up now.”

“You know, we see a lot of visitors here at the museum. They want to know about Hurricane Katrina, but they also want to know how we rebuilt. Resiliency and the sense of community and that’s what Waveland is about. It’s about a sense of community. And so, I think that our visitors, you know, they won’t have to go outside of Waveland to stay for a few days.”

“I think just knowing that there’s going to be a lot of people coming to Waveland brings excitement to us because, you know, we’re here and ready to serve anybody.”