Beltway Investment, Smart Hotels Make History in Atlanta

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Mary Beth Cutshall, HVMG

In a joint venture, Beltway Investment International, Smart Hotels and Hospitality Ventures Management Group will develop a $30-$35 million hotel in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.

The 140-key, high-end boutique hotel will be the first hotel at Atlanta BeltLine, a project that has transformed Atlanta into a city that can be explored on foot and by bike.

“The boutique hotel with the O4W neighborhood as its backdrop, Downtown Atlanta and some of the city’s other unique neighborhoods at its doorstep, will provide discerning Atlanta visitors with an opportunity to experience the unique charms of authentic Atlanta,” Mary Beth Cutshall, HVMG’s senior vice president of acquisitions & business development, told Commercial Property Executive. “The restaurants and retail promenade will ensure that the boutique hotel is an enhancement to the local quality of life, as well as a convenient, stylish and authentic destination for visitors.”

The joint venture is currently working on the hotel’s architecture and design, with the intention to incorporate an authentic connection to the area, as well as its deep history.

“The discerning and tasteful design, upscale positioning, sophisticated architecture and overall varied offering will position the property to appeal to a broad target audience, ranging from the millennial creative, tech and “hipster” set, to more accomplished, slightly older, affluent in-town professionals,” she said.

According to Cutshall, the O4W area and the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail has attracted over $2.4 billion in private development, providing additional momentum to an ongoing gentrification trend already underway and accelerating.

“This project taps into several well-documented trends, which are combining in a mutually reinforcing and synergistic manner to create a perfect storm of opportunity,” she added. “The desire to live within urban, walkable city centers; a disdain for long commutes, isolated suburban lifestyle; young-at-heart, affluent Baby Boomers and Gen Xers desire for in-town living close to nightlife and entertainment; active, health-conscious lifestyle choices, outdoors, green space; and authenticity, edginess (but refined), reconnecting with history and community.”

Located minutes from downtown, on the corner of Irwin Street and Auburn Avenue, the hotel will have direct access to the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail and be within walking distance to the Martin Luther Jr. King Historic Site, Krog Street Market and the Inman Quarter. The hotel site is also adjacent to Studioplex, one of the City’s earliest and most successful adaptive reuse renovation projects (housing 130 contemporary urban live and workspaces).

“There currently are no hotels on the Atlanta Beltline, and our project will be the first to offer visitors to Atlanta a unique guest experience in the heart of what has become one of Atlanta’s most visited dynamic destination area for entertainment, restaurants and recreation,” Cutshall concluded.

HVMG currently operates 32 hotels in 15 states totaling 6,754 guest rooms, with six independent hotels and a number more in the pipeline.