Atlanta's Buckhead community has had a lot of development lately. It's quickly becoming the Beverly Hills of Atlanta, with luxury developments springing up left and right.
One of the biggest developments is the Streets of Buckhead, which is a mixed-use development made up of luxury apartments, high-end retailers, an office building and three hotels. Two of these hotels are confirmed to be a 1 Hotel & Residences and Baccarat Hotel & Residences, both of which are from Starwood Capital.
In case you didn't know, W Hotels has gone all crazy for Hotlanta and will have four W Hotels open in the city by the end of next year.
One of them will be the W Atlanta Buckhead which is undergoing a transformation from Crown Plaza ugly duckling to a beautiful W Swan. Or is it?
Tipster KB found these renderings of the hotel and sent them our way. KB says:
It's, um... interesting to say the least.
Actually, we're kind of happy it's not the same-old, same-old W design. But this sort of looks like the rooms inside a Kor Hotel, the LA-based hotel group that counts the Viceroy and the Tides among its brands. It's also got a touch or Morgans Hotel Group in it too. We say the designer smackdown is on!
The W Hotels brand is one step closer to completing its hotel monopoly on the city of Atlanta as the second W Hotel opens today in midtown. A third and fourth W Hotel is schedule to open next year, making Atlanta just one hotel behind New York for the title of most Ws in a single city.
Now you must be asking why so many Ws in Atlanta? Turns out the city has a bumpin' hotel market:
Atlanta has four distinct hotel markets, and W wanted to have a share in each, [Frits van Paasschen, Starwood CEO] said.
Perimeter caters to residential and shopping while Buckhead grabs the business crowd and the well-heeled looking to drop cash at Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza. Midtown is where celebrities come to party and lawyers entertain their clients, and downtown brings in conventioneers.
Looks like lawyers will get some "techno glam" when they visit The W Atlanta Midtown. That was the inspiration/theme behind this hotel, which was once a Sheraton. The hotel has sleek lines, "clubby" public areas (read: bars and music in the lobby) and gray and black interiors.
More Ws are set for downtown and Buckhead. The W Downtown will have residences atop it and according to Mit Shah, the owner of the W Buckhead, it will be more "shabby chic" interiors, designed by Thom Filicia of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" who also did the renovations of the rooms at the W Westwood.
We couldn't find any rooms online open tonight but we did find something on Saturday--a Wonderful room with King bed for $215 a night at the internet rate which is pre-pay and no cancellations allowed.
The Atlanta blog, Around Midtown, has posted some pics of the conversion of the W Hotel Midtown from a Sheraton on their site and this is what the new W will look like. What's going on there? Well Around Midtown breaks it down:
Now construction is finally at the point where you can see some of their plans unfolding, which include painting the predominantly cream building a slate color, accented by a linear black effect up the building. The retaining walls at the ground level are being covered with a slate.
While anything is better than a fugly Sheraton, we have a feeling the folks in Hotlanta might get sick of W Hotels soon. Aside from this one and the current W Atlanta Perimeter, there are Ws set for downtown and BuckHead. Maybe they should just call it Watlanta. Ok, bad joke, we know.
There's going to be another W Hotel in Atlanta soon. When the W Atlanta-Downtown Hotel & Residencesopens its doors open in 2008, it will feature 237 hotel rooms, 76 luxury residences, 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a BLT Steak restaurant, and the luxurious Bliss Spa.
The new W will offer up the typical W-branded amenities and services such as Wet® the pool, the Sweat Fitness® center and Whatever/Whenever® concierge service -- as well as two perks worth noting, the city's first hotel rooftop heliport and a 16th-floor open air "infinity-edge" pool. Finally, W has stepped it up a bit!
The downtown Atlanta W hotel will be the crown jewel of the $1.95 billion mixed-use development Allen Plaza situated at the confluence of the Downtown Connector, covering nine city blocks and including nearly 230,000 square feet of retail, 1,300 residences and 2.4 million square feet of office space.
World-renowned Pickard Chilton Architects designed the building with floor-to-ceiling glass and outdoor terraces, while BurdiFilek Interior Design out of Toronto is completing the interior spaces.
Atlanta will be getting lots of new hotels in the future. As we previously reported, Kimpton is planning a condotel that will blow the folks of Atlanta away. And the Mandarin Oriental has its sights on the Southern city. With all this future competition and a report that the existing W Hotel Atlanta Perimeter was "uninspiring" with dated, small rooms and a bathtub that "looked like it came out of a Ramada Inn," we are sure this new W Hotel will live up to expectations. Maybe W will just close that Perimeter location for good? No need for it after this one opens, is there?
We love when members tip us off to cool properties, and this find from Hotelfiend is a doozy. It's Atlanta's Clermont Motor Hotel, and the infamous strip club next door, the Clermont Lounge:
While I have never been into the hotel itself I have been to the lounge on several (drunken) occasions...Even though the rate is a reasonable $40 a night I can't bring myself to actually check into a room. That being said, it really is an experience everyone should have when visiting Atlanta. Where else can a sorority girl, Marylin Manson, and a crack head all hang out in the same place and have a great time?
Where indeed? Dave Attell and Kid Rock have also dropped in, and it's one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite spots in ATL. We figure the strip club half gets more attention than the hotel, but we'd love to see pics of the rooms.
If you love the Clermont, or any other seedy hotel, let us know.
Luxury standout Mandarin Oriental continues its push into the U.S. with plans for a new hotel in Atlanta. According to the Atlanta Business Journal, it will be sited at what is now a parking lot "between 1100 Peachtree and the Atlanta Women's Club. (They're assured of a built-in "ladies who lunch" crowd anyway.)
Atlanta-based Tivoli Properties Inc. is the developer for the project, and on Thursday submitted its formal plans to the state as a development of regional impact. The plans call for a 200-room hotel, 70 high-rise condos and 11,500 square feet of retail space. Pending permit approvals, the project will break ground and be finished in 2010.
This is just the first step in a long process of course, with lots of posturing, negotiating, and permit-wrangling to come. We'd put bets on 2010 being a best-case scenario.
It's hard to believe that there is a museum devoted to Coca-Cola but there is and a newer bigger facility for the soft drink is opening on Thursday, May 24th. Hotels are always keen to capitalize on museum openings and so the Atlanta Marriott Marquis has put together a New World of Coca Cola museum package.
Included are deluxe city-view room accommodations, two VIP tickets to the museum where you can sample nearly 70 different beverages, complimentary breakfast for two, and complimentary hotel valet parking.
Once inside the Coke museum, you can tour the soft drink through the years.
The museum is presented roughly in chronological order, with numerous examples of advertising materials and Coke-branded memorabilia. Some of the noteworthy attractions include a replica of a mid-20th century soda fountain (based on a real drugstore that was found in the city of Baxley, Georgia, in the southeastern corner of the state) and a more futuristic vision of one, where guests get a chance to try Coca-Cola products from around the world.
The hotel package is $185 per night for a weekend night and the VIP tickets are open-ended. You can book on Marriott.com by using the promotional code EW4 or you can call 1-800-834-7015 using the same code. Unfortunately, a free dental cleaning is not included in the package
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by AndrewC
