Hilton Head’s first rooftop pool is open at Coligny hotel. Here’s a look from the top
It’s the tallest building in Hilton Head Island’s Coligny area, and it’s open for business.
The Marriott Courtyard Hotel is the island’s first rooftop pool and bar, Town Manager Steve Riley told The Island Packet in 2018. It opened in May after a years-long construction and area renovation project that changed the face of several nearby restaurants.
On a sunny weekday afternoon, a handful of people were perched by the pool with the highest elevation on the island — on the sixth floor of the brick hotel.
With the ocean in the distance and the view of parking lots in between, the Courtyard hotel features outdoor seating and fire pits between the bar and pool area.
The 115-room hotel was a controversial build for the island’s south end.
The hotel’s opening comes after a 2014 rewrite of zoning rules, which had previously restricted the construction of new hotels in the Coligny area, according to previous Island Packet reporting.
The Board of Zoning Appeals approved a plan in 2015 that allowed the hotel to stand taller than most buildings because it is further off Pope Avenue, according to the meeting minutes.
Nearby residents at Coligny Villas have told both town committees and The Island Packet that they worry about losing sunlight and peaceful evenings to the rooftop crowd.
Others on the island have argued the hotel’s height and style run contradictory to the island’s laid-back, nature-blending vibe.
“We expressed our concerns at that point, and the (Board of Zoning Appeals) decided to allow the developer to go ahead,” Coligny Villas owner Jay Owen said in 2018. “Naturally we still have that concern, and it seemed to fall on deaf ears.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 12:52 PM.
