Luxury hotel set to open in Wilson

A new luxury boutique hotel celebrating a rural town's Southern hospitality and historical ties to the cotton industry in the Arkansas Delta officially opens today for reservations.

The Louis Hotel in Wilson features a lobby with a bar lounge, five private cottages, 16 rooms and three grand suites, as well as a rooftop bar and a courtyard.

"The commitment to Wilson is, first and foremost, to create a hospitality destination that is unparalleled in the country," said Jeff Kmiec, CEO of Wilson and its development.

"The commitment to the overnight accommodations, to the two restaurants we have, to the golf course that we're putting the finishing touches on, to the spa that will open in 2024, [and] there's a Wilson motor club, which is very [a] unique immersive experience, auto museum and on and on, so the desire here is to create a place people will want to come and visit."

The hotel is also putting the finishing touches on the Field Club, a new trap and skeet range, that will, in the future, include arranged duck hunts, Kmiec said.

The historic hotel has English Tudor architecture, and renovation took over two years.

"The history of Wilson, founded in 1886, at one point in time, it was the agricultural epicenter for the country, specifically for cotton, and ... the previous owners, the Wilson family, their son and daughter-in-law were sent to England on a honeymoon," Kmiec said.

"When they came back they had fallen so in love with the English Tudor architecture of England that they decided to remake the town. This is back in the '50s, so that's why it's a little bit of an anomaly to be driving along the Blues Highway and suddenly come across this town square that looks like you're somewhere in England."

The hotel's interior decor celebrates the local cotton industry and was designed with the idea of combining masculine and feminine elements and evoking a sense of Southern hospitality and charm, said Jennifer Kleen, owner and founder of FODA Design, a Georgia-based luxury hospitality interior design company the hotel hired.

"At the reception desk, we actually [have] compacted cotton in the front of the desk," Kleen said. "When you're driving into Wilson, you pass all those bales of cotton that are rolled and ready for pick up coming off of production from the field, so we thought that was such a quintessential part of Wilson to have in that lobby greeting you."

A locally famous French bulldog can also be seen in unique touches throughout the hotel, in a portrait above the reception desk and as a figurine on a side table on the lobby bar lounge area.

"We kept it in the Tudor style, but we did want it to feel a little more current. It's really about bringing in Wilson's culture -- the cotton industry and farming -- there's a small-town feel when you come into Wilson," Kleen said.

"Between the materials and the colors and some of the artwork that featured things that were nods to Wilson's culture, we really kept balancing [the] residential and industrial elements, so people would feel comfortable and have that sense of place."

The hotel also offers a 60-day, artist-in-residence program in partnership with the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis.

Print Headline: Luxury hotel set to open in Wilson

This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Material from the Associated Press is Copyright © 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. All rights reserved.

Blog