Georgia Magazine - November 2023 - 28

Around GEORGIA By Leslie Moses
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R
ichard Kessler points to a rock with amber, purple and
black crystals. The open geode sits on a pedestal in
Savannah's Plant Riverside District.
" To me, this is a futuristic city in one rock, " says the
Savannah-born real estate developer. " I brought my architect
[Christian Sottile], and I said, 'Look, let's build this one day.' "
In the meantime, Kessler built Plant Riverside. The
bustling, four-block site on 4.5 acres that once held a power
plant cost nearly $400 million and awakened the west end
of River Street, the city's chief tourist corridor along the
Savannah River.
If the site was a geode, its crystals are many, with its brightest
being the science museum that is housed in the JW Marriott
lobby and features artifacts such as meteorites and an ice-age
bear. Other Plant Riverside facets include a guitar museum; fine
art; fine dining and more than a dozen food and drink spots
that include steak, seafood, gelato, a beer garden, pizza and
African cocktails; rooftop bars with a pool and a slide for adults;
a terraced lawn with live music events; a concert venue and
recording studio; a Martin Luther King Jr. tribute and park;
three lit fountains that " dance " to music; high-end retail shops;
and public parking in a 500-vehicle underground garage.
Quest for exuberance
Kessler, the Rincon-raised son of a plumber and a homemaker,
once built and ran banks but found them too restrictive
for his creative feats. He now focuses on boutique hotels.
ur
at Savannah's Plant Riverside District
Plant Riverside opened in July 2020, and awards followed,
such as a '21 Global Award for Excellence from the Washington,
D.C.-based Urban Land Institute Americas, a top organization
for urban development.
Kessler is a " creative soul " who enjoys the search for
beauty but loves sharing his discoveries with others even more,
Sottile says.
Kessler's goal is focused: exuberant guests. How does Plant
Riverside get such visitors? By building places infused with art
and beauty that add to the community, he says.
Yet it is the chrome dinosaur about the length of nine
vehicles that wows Chad Netherland of Gatlinburg, Tenn., as
he steps into the district's JW Marriott hotel in mid-August and
sees the Maraapunisaurus overhead.
Netherland learns that the dinosaur's head moves as if it
were feeding.
" No way! " says Netherland, who is staying at the hotel for a
U.S. Travel Association convention.
" That's an exuberant guest. That's exactly what we want, "
Kessler says. " And notice the people in here. You have all ages. "
In the hotel lobby, Kessler estimates that 80 percent of
visitors aren't staying at the hotel.
" It's a free museum, " he says.
Plant Riverside officials estimate that there have been
1.4 million visitors to the district in the last year.
While there are many features that attract people to Plant
Riverside, here are just seven things you can see and do there.
The lobby of the JW Marriott in the Plant Riverside District is a free
natural-science museum.
28 Georgia Magazine November 2023
Brennan Brown, 2, and his mother, C'mille Best Brown, step on clear
fl ooring over a dinosaur replica underground at Plant Riverside.
COURTESY PLANT RIVERSIDE DISTRICT
LESLIE MOSES
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Georgia Magazine - November 2023

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