July 28–Downtown Orlando is in the midst of a hotel boomlet, with two properties under construction and at least three others in the works.
The latest project to surface, if ultimately built, would add a 205-room Hyatt Place to the corner of South Street and Garland Avenue, next to the Ballroom at Church Street.
The proposal comes from the Boston-based Tremont Capital Advisors. Hyatt is listed on documents filed with the city as the developer.
Hyatt Place targets business travelers and, last year, was named a travelers’ favorite in a survey conducted by Business Travel News.
The property is a prime downtown location just across from Interstate 4 and the new Amway Arena. It’s just a few blocks south of the site where workers are now doing a floor-to-ceiling renovation of the hotel that sits across the street from the Carr Performing Arts Centre.
That property, formerly a Sheraton and Marriott, is getting a facelift expected to cost about $17 million. It was bought early this year by Alena Hospitality, which paid another $17 million or so for the building and the land it sits on.
Alena, which is renovating two other Central Florida properties, is turning the hotel into the Renaissance Orlando. It hopes to reopen the hotel by May 2015.
Alena won’t be making structural changes to the property, company officials have said, but all the public spaces and rooms will be redesigned.
A little north of there, a towering crane and crews of hard-hatted workers are building a new Residence Inn by Marriott at the corner of Colonial Drive and Orange Avenue. The seven-story, 138-room hotel will wrap around the Mama B’s sub shop and 4,000 square feet of commercial space.
It is a $21 million joint venture between Ustler Development and Pinnacle Hotel Management.
Developers also have also proposed building hotels on Orange Avenue across from the Orange County Courthouse and at the intersection of Rosalind Avenue and Washington Street, across from Lake Eola.
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