Bisnow Exclusive: Hilton Plans New Boutique Downtown
Hilton is looking to bring its newest brand, a hyper-local boutique that will even loan out bicycles to guests, to Downtown Atlanta. Bisnow chatted with one of the key players working on the plan.
Hilton Canopy is in advanced talks to be the second flag in Legacy Ventures' dual-flagged Marietta Street hotel in the Luckie-Marietta District, which includes Hilton Worldwide's Homewood Suites. Legacy's captain, David Marvin (here with his kids), tells us the $80M, 350-key project attached to the parking deck at 311 Marietta will have a lot of cool bells and whistles.
A lifestyle-themed boutique, each location of Canopy by Hilton will be heavily influenced by the local culture, with localized in-room amenities. It will also emphasize healthy breakfasts, and offer bike rentals, so guests can ride around the local environs.
Canopy, launched by Hilton in 2013, plans to open its first property this year in Iceland (here) and will roll out hotels in Charlotte, Bethesda, Oklahoma City and West Palm Beach. David says while plans for a dual-branded hotel have long been in gestation for the site, skyrocketing construction costs put that on hold. He says Legacy now hopes to break ground this year after assurances of a capital infusion from an unnamed life company. “We are very close,” he says.
Legacy Ventures is the new name that encompasses David's three related companies: Legacy Property Group; Legacy Restaurant Partners, which owns and operates such eateries as Glenn's Kitchen/Sky Lounge, STATS and Max's Coal Oven Pizzeria; and Legacy Hotel Partners, which develops and manages hotels.
Certainly there's a PR benefit to consolidating the three companies, but David also says there's a financial benefit: He's taking the strength of the three divisions and putting them into a single balance sheet, which helps when attempting to attract investor interest and debt financing.
“We continued to operate in silos and sort of had this awakening what we had was special and formidable and the breadth of our toolbox was not something we should conceal behind three curtains,” he says.
