Sheraton Atlanta to be Renovated

September 26,2014

Atlanta’s sixth-largest hotel is launching a $20 million renovation just as the city sees its lodging demand soar.

CAP Member, Sheraton Atlanta, a 763-room convention hotel in downtown, just kicked off a project to update its exterior facade, public spaces and guest rooms. Work will be done in phases, with the goal of finishing in 2015, the same year the hotel on Courtland Street celebrates 50 years in business.

“In order to remain competitive, we have to continue to update our property,” said Niles Harris, the hotel’s general manager. “It’s all about remaining competitive.”

Local leaders want to capture rising demand for hotel rooms. Atlanta now leads the Top 25 U.S. markets in occupancy growth. Harris said the Sheraton is seeing its highest occupancy levels in his six years there. Year to date through August, occupancy has soared to north of 70 percent, he said.

Sheraton owner Amerimar Enterprises Inc. will fund the renovation, the hotel’s first update since 2009 when it spent about $15 million, Harris said. Hughes Turner Phillips Associates will conduct the architectural work on the project.

First on the to-do list is to give the hotel new curb appeal. The Sheraton’s signature entrance tent (called the porte-cochere) is being replaced to give the hotel’s front drive a new look. Already, it has torn down the previous structure, which was 12 years old, and plans to start building a new, more traditional one in October.

Future improvements will freshen up the Sheraton’s guest rooms, replace carpeting, resurface the pool, paint the courtyard and add VIP areas to the hotel’s Fandangles Restaurant and Bar.

“For us, it’s about feeling good about the property,” Harris said.

Other downtown hotels have invested in major renovations this year. The city’s fifth-largest hotel, the Westin Peachtree Plaza, this spring wrapped up a $70 million renovation that began in 2008 after a tornado ripped through downtown and severely damaged the 1,073-room hotel. Among the improvements, last year the Westin’s revolving restaurant, The Sun Dial Restaurant, Bar & View got a million-dollar makeover.

Also this year, Banyan Investment Group, in partnership with DeBartolo Development LLC, spent around $25 million to renovate the former Days Inn Atlanta Downtown. The team turned the property at 300 Spring St. into Georgia’s first Aloft hotel, which opened in April.

Courtesy, Atlanta Business Chronicle