3 Downtown Atlanta Hotels to Close

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

FYI, from today's AJC:

Three metro Atlanta hotels to close, change course

"The Wyndham Garden Hotel and Baymont Inn and Suites on Piedmont Avenue are expected to close sometime during the middle of August while Marriott's Renaissance Hotel on West Peachtree Street has announced it is laying off 142 employees in anticipation of closing later this year."

For more go to article online or look under the cut. Also, see a map showing the hotels, all close to D*C, here.

Three metro Atlanta hotels to close, change course
By Leon Stafford
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5:10 p.m. Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Despite signs of recovery after two years of one of the industry's worst downturns, some metro Atlanta hotels will exit the market or make major changes to survive.

The Wyndham Garden Hotel and Baymont Inn and Suites on Piedmont Avenue are expected to close sometime during the middle of August while Marriott's Renaissance Hotel on West Peachtree Street has announced it is laying off 142 employees in anticipation of closing later this year.

Marriott is moving 75 percent of the laid-off Renaissance staff to other hotels in the chain, said spokesman Jeff Flaherty, and is working with management of the building to find jobs for the remaining 25 percent.

The moves come as the owners of metro hotels survey the rocky lodging landscape, which includes an oversupply of rooms, and are asking whether it's time to bump up their game or get out completely, industry experts say.

"The stress that the lodging industry has been experiencing for the last two years has been at record levels," said Mark Woodworth, president of PKF Hospitality Research. "As a consequence of that stress, more and more property owners are asking themselves the question, ‘Is operating this facility as a hotel really what produces the maximum economic return?'"

The Wyndham and the Baymont are being sold to Georgia State University for dormitories, the experts said, though the school would not confirm the transaction. The hotels sit next to the massive University Commons dorm the school erected on the old Beaudry Ford property at the corner of Ellis Street and Piedmont Avenue.

Leaders have floated the idea of changing or "re-flagging" the Renaissance to another brand, but nothing has been announced.

Paul Breslin, a managing partner at Panther Hospitality, said there could be many more changes to come. With hotels across the country in the same distress as the housing and building industries, every operator is trying to decide if he has the right location, the most compatible brand or is getting the best return on investment.

It's happened before, he said. The Buckhead and Midtown W hotels were respectively a Crowne Plaza and a Sheraton just a few years ago. The Marriott Buckhead and the Doubletree on La Vista Road also replaced underperforming hotels.

"The buzz in the (lodging) industry is ‘opportunity,'" he said. "(Hotels) tend to go out of the system because they have outlived their life expectancy.

Comments

[acciochocolate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the text of the article.

What's a bit strange about this is that Atlanta is a big tourist destination, but with the downturn, people aren't traveling as much.

It's interesting to find out that those two hotels are being sold to GSU. That's what a lof of people thought when the news broke about the hotels closing and many D*C attendees losing their reservations.

[veracity]

This year, GSU got a football team as well, right? If that's the case, they'd need more housing because more incoming freshman since they're attempting to be more like GT and the larger schools. And let's face it, in this city football is a goldmine of opportunities.

Did you notice the article saying the Buckhead W was a formerly a Crowne Plaze? I thought the W was the new one with the weird lights like 3 buildings from the former Swissotel (Westin now, I think). If that's the case, I remember watching it be built when I lived in Buckhead at the time.

[coleoptera.livejournal.com]

GSU has a commitment to house 25% of freshmen on campus in the next 5 years. They currently house only 10%. The college is trying to move away from being such a commuter school and create residential and social on-campus options. I recently had a campus tour and spoke with some members of the administration on this - it's not going to be easy with the high value and low availability of property downtown, but I think they'll get there. The hotels will help.

All that being said, I thought that the aforementioned hotels were all being used as overflow convention hotels? Are people's reservations being canceled? That seems like it will create a lot of problems for convention goers.

[coleoptera.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I don't know why I mistyped. I meant to write "25% of students".

[blinkidybah.livejournal.com]

Yes; they were listed as overflows and then everyone's reservations were canceled with little to no warning. Extremely ridiculous considering big sales like this usually don't happen two months before the things are scheduled to close and they probably could have warned people earlier (or at all!).

[veracity]

I can see the need to leave being a commuter school, because let's face it, trying to commute in our city is like trying to turn silver into gold. It ain't easy. I know some people stay in the apartments around the area, but again, it's not always easy to find one walkable or near enough. I wonder how the students will like living in former hotel establishment. The sheer size of the bathroom with two people alone. For a short time, not a problem. For nine months? Might be a tad more uncomfortable.


Yeah, it came out last month the reservations were canceled and it wasn't pretty.

[meowwl.livejournal.com]

If you ask me, this is a really boneheaded move on their part...they could have waited till after they made the customary boatload of money off the con, and then closed down immediately after.

[cyberdragon56.livejournal.com]

Kind of stupid for them to close a few weeks before DC,,, you'd think they could of waited a few weeks to rake in all the bookings from DragonCon.

DragonCon is a HUGE money maker for the hotels involved with DC, you'd think they'd show a little more happiness to have us there....

[oddball79.livejournal.com]

Thought the Wyndham and Baymont closing had already been posted here, or I would have posted it a few weeks ago. People that had already made their reservations got a cal about a month ago informing them that those two hotels would be closed by the 14th of this month and that their reservations have been moved to a sister hotel ~1.5 miles away.

Wanting to have an easy walk to the con, I had fun jumping on the phone and finding a new hotel room. (which I did manage)

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

It already has been posted here. You're correct.

[ubiquitous-a.livejournal.com]

The moves come as the owners of metro hotels survey the rocky lodging landscape, which includes an oversupply of rooms, and are asking whether it's time to bump up their game or get out completely, industry experts say.

Yeah, an oversupply EXCEPT for the weekend of D*C, that is. Feh.