Renowned downtown Columbia boutique hotel expanding to Main Street. Here’s what’s planned

Hotel Trundle, the award-winning boutique hotel that has been a part of the revitalization of downtown Columbia, announced that it will be expanding with a new wing on Main Street.

The hotel, which has been open at 1224 Taylor St. since 2018, said in a Tuesday news release that it will expand by adding a new block of rooms around the corner at 1544 Main St.

Called The Flutter Wing, the expansion will likely open in spring 2023.

The Flutter Wing will be on the second floor of 1544 Main. Longtime restaurant Drake’s Duck-In occupies the first floor. The building is right across the street from the Columbia Museum of Art and is near a number of other downtown mainstays, such as the Nickelodeon Theatre and Mast General Store. That stretch of Main Street also is at the heart of the weekly Soda City Market.

The Flutter Wing will have an outdoor patio and five hotel-style guest rooms, with one of those being a large bridal suite. The Flutter Wing will occupy about 2,500 square feet in the building, not including the 500-square-foot patio, according to the release.

Hotel Trundle, owned by husband-wife duo Rita Patel and Marcus Munse, currently has 41 rooms. Last year it was named one of the 10 best historic hotels in America in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

“We are introducing a new way to experience Hotel Trundle, continuing our practice of partnering with as many local Columbia businesses as possible,” Patel said in a statement. “The Flutter Wing will have a modern but dreamy style with European flair; rooms will be Instagram-worthy while celebrating all of the historical details that make the space so charming.”

The Flutter Wing will bring about the renovation of a historic building that saw many uses in decades past. Per the release, some of those past uses included a book store, a shoe shop and beauty salons.

A continued demand for event-related rooms downtown helped drive the need for the expansion, the owners said.

“We’re expanding in response to the volume of special event and wedding guests we host consistently at Hotel Trundle,” Munse said in the release. “These satellite rooms can cater specifically to those guests and fill a niche with high demand in our market. It also aligns with our model of adapting historic buildings and converting spaces that weren’t hotels into stylish, modern lodgings that are downtown and convenient to the venues and restaurants of the Main Street District.”

Flutter Wing guests can expect a number of amenities, including, according to the release, “a complimentary local craft beer or hand-picked wine at check-in, a complimentary hot and local breakfast delivered via contactless room service, a fitness studio, locally roasted coffee, and use of the fashionable lounge and communal workspace at the flagship hotel.”