Plans are coming into clearer focus for a mid-rise hotel project that would claim a long-vacant corner lot near the Georgia Aquarium and National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
High End Investments, a Houston-based developer, applied for building permits with the City of Atlanta early this year to construct a Residence Inn by Marriott at 355 Centennial Olympic Park Drive.
The building would rise 14 stories with 188 rooms, with guests housed on the top seven floors. The bottom five stories would be used for 129 parking spaces and electric-vehicle charging stations, all wrapped in a perforated screen, according to Niles Bolton Associates, the Atlanta-based architecture firm handling interior, exterior, and landscape designs.
Other aspects would include a third-party bar and restaurant space at street level, a pool deck over Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard, and a terrace with views across Centennial Olympic Park.
Plans for the 14-story structure with a restaurant at its base where Centennial Olympic Park Drive meets Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard. Niles Bolton Associates
Designs for the Residence Inn are meant to strike “a balance between playfulness and sophistication,” with “décor [that] is crisp and modern, emphasizing earth tones and natural textures and materials like stone, concrete, and hardwood,” per Niles Bolton’s description.
The .8-acre site is a former gravel parking lot that’s been fenced-off and sparingly used for several years.
According to City of Atlanta Office of Buildings records, all aspects of the project have been undergoing a review process in recent months, and building permits could be issued as soon as this week. High End Investments could not be reached today for a construction update.
A High End official told Bisnow Atlanta in January the firm is bullish on the hotel’s prospects downtown, and that the project would be the company’s first in Atlanta.
The .8-acre, corner hotel site just north of the World of Coca-Cola and other Centennial Olympic Park attractions. Google Maps
Located diagonal from the park’s north end, near Georgia Aquarium, the hotel building would stand three stories shorter than Kaplan Residential’s Generation Atlanta apartments next door. That 17-story project finished construction in summer 2020, offering 336 rentals, and was sold the following year for a record sum for downtown.
A 10-story Candlewood Suites was once briefly planned for the same corner site, but the COVID-19 pandemic squashed those plans.
High End paid $3.8 million for the parcel, which had traded for $10.5 million in pre-recession 2008, according to Fulton County property records.
Where the 188-key hotel's pool amenities would be placed over Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard. Niles Bolton Associates
The Residence Inn wouldn’t be the only new hospitality venture near downtown’s signature park.
A 22-story Margaritaville resort condo building by Wyndham Destinations, also fronting Centennial Olympic Park Drive, opened last year with 200 suites and two floors of retail near SkyView Atlanta.
Elsewhere downtown, the Signia by Hilton project is scheduled to deliver almost 1,000 more hotel rooms early next year, and Centennial Yards expects to finish its 229-room Anthem hotel the year before 2026 World Cup matches roll into Atlanta.
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