Well this announcement came as a total surprise!

Starwood Capital Group & Ben Carter Properties are planning to build a Baccarat Hotel & Residences within the Streets of Buckhead project in Atlanta Georgia! This Baccarat project will be the first location within the Continental United States and will also include a Baccarat Crystal Boutique – Georgia’s first Baccarat location, and America’s 12th Baccarat Boutique location. It will contain 100 hotel rooms and 42 condos – a very small project – yet, somewhat fitting since the Baccarat brand is being promoted as a high end luxury brand, so they will be able to pull off a small hotel and yet still make a return on their investment.

A few months back I wrote about the state of the hotel industry in Atlanta – mentioned how it seems as though all of the luxury hotel brands are suddenly opening up a location in either the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta or Downtown Atlanta, mainly due to the influx of commercial businesses moving to the area.

In that post I also spoke about how Barry Hotel Partners was building a 1 Hotel and Residences within the same Streets of Buckhead project, but in recent weeks Barry announced that they were withdrawing from being the developer of the 1 Hotel, and would not be building the Hotel Monaco either due to the current economic conditions. Concurrently with that announcement, Ben Carter Properties announced that they will continue to develop the 1 Hotel (of which construction has not yet started) with no mention being made of the Hotel Monaco status, nonetheless it’s very fitting that Baccarat will be joining 1 Hotel as one of the projects hotels.

Initially this project was supposed to have four hotels – 1 Hotel, Hotel Monaco (from Kimpton), a boutique hotel named “The Paces Plaza Hotel & Residences” ironically enough – with 100 rooms and 42 residences and a fourth hotel which was unnamed, and . It sounds as though the Paces Plaza has been re-branded as the Baccarat Hotel & Residences, although it is still unclear as to what is going to happen with the Hotel Monaco and the third unnamed hotel. According to the Streets of Buckhead’s website as of now, the only hotel that is scheduled to open is the 1 Hotel. They even changed the initial press release to reflect that only two hotels are to open the 1 Hotel and the unnamed boutique hotel. Compare that to this article back in September 2007 where it stated that Barry Hotel Partners will be building both the 1 Hotel, and the Hotel Monaco, with an additional two hotels to be built as well.

Will the Streets of Buckhead have two, three or four hotel properties?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ben Carter Properties is working on plans to bring in another hotel brand – perhaps maybe a Le Crillon? Normally I wouldn’t expect a Crillon to be in a location like that, as it cannot be compared to a cit but since they are already building two Starwood Capital brands, its a very good possibility that they are bringing in a third. Not only that, but the Streets of Buckhead is being positioned as a high end luxury development, so only time will tell.

All in all, it’s a great development for both Ben Carter properties and Starwood Capital Group. It allows Starwood Capital another great location for their new hotel brands, and it gives Ben Carter Properties the confidence of having a reputable and experienced hotel firm managing their project’s hotels.

andrew@alconic-inc.com