RESTORING A 1924 JEWEL BOX
That walkable character was a selling point for Loews, Bali says. “The neighborhood was becoming a vibrant focal point for the city. We saw Midtown as an alternative to either the ‘big box hotel’ environment of downtown or the exclusivity of Buckhead.”

Architecturally, the Loews Atlanta's floor-to-ceiling windows are striking. “You can look out on Peachtree Street and Piedmont Park without any obstruction,” says Bali.
Midtown continues to attract boutiques like the recently opened Artmore Hotel, a refurbished version of the former Granada Suites Hotel on Peachtree and 13th Streets.

The current owner and operator, Boutique Hospitality Management of Atlanta, has restored the Spanish Colonial architecture of the delicately detailed 1924 building. Its decorative touches include Baroque-style moldings on the window frames and obelisk-like finials atop the facade. The Artmore is located in the city's cultural arts district, a block from the High Museum of Art.

The city's downtown hotel market, adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center, has an obvious advantage for the convention market. With many hotels built in the 1980s, downtown Atlanta hotels are investing heavily in upgrades to stay competitive. For instance, the 760-room Sheraton Atlanta received $20 million in improvements late last year.

The Westin Peachtree Plaza, designed and developed in 1976 by John Portman, is replacing all 65,000 windows in its 73-story building, which was damaged by a tornado in 2008. The city's visitors bureau calls it “the largest exterior hotel renovation in the Western Hemisphere.”

Last November, the 1,242-room Hilton Atlanta underwent a $55 million renovation of its suites, lobby, 119,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and restaurants.

A new set of sky bridges connect several convention hotels. In March 2009, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and the Hilton Atlanta completed a sky bridge linking the two, which have a combined 2,800 guest rooms.

The downtown Hyatt Regency Atlanta is building a second bridge to link the Hyatt to the downtown Marriott and Hilton. That will add another 1,260 rooms and 87,000 sq. ft. of additional meeting space.

Is the triple-hotel package meant to handle spillover from big conventions and trade shows, or does it intend to compete directly with the city's convention center for those same shows? Both, says Pate of the visitors' bureau.

IHG already has this Hotel Indigo in Midtown Atlanta, but more are under development.

BOUTIQUES SPROUT
Downtown has boutiques as well as high-rise convention hotels. The 237-room W Atlanta Downtown opened in 2009, giving the city more W hotels than any city outside New York. The newest entry to downtown's clutch of boutiques is the Hotel Indigo, developed by InterContinental Hotels Group.

IHG is renovating the former Carnegie Building, set to open later this year. “I love adaptive reuse,” says Jim Anhut, IHG’s chief development officer for the Americas at. “None of the Hotel Indigos should look like any other.”

In refurbishing an historic building, each Hotel Indigo should reflect the local culture in some way, says Anhut. The decor of the downtown Indigo emphasizes the heritage of Southern writers, a nod to the birthplace of author Margaret Mitchell. Murals and wallpaper designs pay homage to regional literary figures.

Developers are also sinking money into hotels near the airport. Marriott International Inc. of Bethesda, Md. is building the 403-room Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway. When completed in November, the Airport Marriott will contain 300,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, making it a formidable presence in attracting business groups to the city.

Hotel Indigo, meanwhile, also plans to break into the airport market with a boutique, even though exquisite small hotels are an unfamiliar product type in that market. “Airport hotels tend to very functional,” says Anhut. “We tend to be a little more experiential.”

IHG located the airport Indigo at the crossroads of two major transportation systems, including the city's MARTA light rail, which has a station within the airport. Slated to open in 2011, the future Hotel Indigo will be located one train stop away from the airport, in quiet College Park.

Unlike other airport hotels, the Indigo is not sitting on a highway with a bunch of roaring cars and noisy airplanes, says Anhut, referring to the College Park location.

Despite the challenges of a market that is still in economic recovery, as are hotel owners and operators across the country, IHG is more than willing to make new investments and face the long, slow climb to profitability required in the months and years after a new project opens. And Anhut remains undaunted. “We have a big pipeline of hotel activity in Atlanta.”