Westin Poinsett hotel in Greenville sold to new owner

Greenville’s most historic downtown hotel is in the hands of a new owner.

According to trade organization Hotel Management Network, real estate investment company Highline Hospitality Partners has acquired the Westin Poinsett hotel, making the Main Street hotel the 19^th in its portfolio.

Highline Hospitality also owns Hyatt Place and Hyatt House in Charleston’s historic district.

For the team who saved the hotel 30 years ago, it was time to put the elegant property into someone else’s hands.

In a memo dated Oct. 7, 2025, to “our valued partners, supporters and community leaders,” P. Steven Dopp wrote on behalf of GLC LP, owner of Greenville’s The Westin Poinsett: “To everything there is a season. We have decided that after almost 30 years it is time to turn ownership of The Westin Poinsett Hotel over to a new steward.”

The memo says they have signed an exclusive listing agreement with real estate firm CBRE to market the sale of the hotel to a preselected group of potential buyers “that we believe will carry on its 100-year legacy and remain committed to the staff of the hotel and people of Greenville.”

Dopp said he expected to sell the property in the first quarter of 2026. The sale price of the 120-room hotel was not disclosed.

Dopp is president of Packwood Management with a portfolio that also includes the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston and the historic Middlebury Inn in Middlebury, Vt.

Dopp and Greg Lenox bought the hotel in 1997 in what was the final “down” in a series of ups and downs for the structure.

Construction was completed in 1925 on the 12-story Poinsett, named for Joel R. Poinsett, a prominent South Carolina politician who served as U.S. secretary of war during the administration of Martin Van Buren, according to a history of the hotel on the city of Greenville‘s website. A physician, amateur botanist and avid traveler, Poinsett’s adventures led him to send samples of an exotic plant from Mexico to the United States, where it came to be known as the poinsettia.

The hotel was elegant but struggled in its early years before becoming a social hub for the city, according to the website, but challenging times were coming as that area of Greenville followed the plight of downtowns across the country. Ownership changed several times and by 1977 the hotel was left vacant after operating briefly as a retirement home, according to the website.

An effort to get the Poinsett going again did get the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places but in 1987 it was closed again and it stood empty and surrounded by chain link fence — and sometimes vandalized despite the fence — until it was bought by Dopp and Greg Lenox. After three years of renovations it was reopened in 2000 as the Westin Poinsett, a central player in the revitalization of downtown Greenville. Westin is an upscale hotel brand and part of the Marriott International family of brands.