Another new luxury hotel downtown?

[Blazer85]

The site of the 17-story former Regions HQ appears like it may be set to become a new luxury hotel with 255 rooms, ballrooms, restaurants, a spa, etc. Details are expected to maybe be announced in a news conference tomorrow at 2PM.

The site is a great location at 20th Street and 5th Avenue North.

Here's the story: http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/inde....xml&coll=2

[kayman]

If this hotel does come to fruition, there will be 1100+ hotel rooms within walking distance of the BJCC. This is not counting the 4 other potential hotel projects that maybe in the works for the downtown area also. Birmingham's City Center looks to be turning the corner and hopefully the whole City of Birmingham will follow this trend.

[Alabadrock]

If this hotel does come to fruition, there will be 1100+ hotel rooms within walking distance of the BJCC. This is not counting the 4 other potential hotel projects that maybe in the works for the downtown area also. Birmingham's City Center looks to be turning the corner and hopefully the whole City of Birmingham will follow this trend.

[DRJWAREAGLE]

I wonder how tall the new building would be? Is there a potential for some office space as well? What would be really cool if this turned out to be a 35+ story building. I know Regions has plenty of space in the Amsouth Center and the Harbert Plaza but newly merged corporations are known to build new headquarters.But even if this is just a mid-sized building, a new downtown hotel is great news.

[Blazer85]

I'm not entirely convinced the new hotel will be new construction. If it is new construction, I'd love to see it be a huge tower, but I just don't know. I don't necessarily want to see a 17-story tower razed for a 6-story midrise or something. Now if it's taller than 17-stories, I wouldn't as much mind it being razed and rebuilt.

The whole thing is a bit puzzling. They're calling this a "major development," but at just 255-units or so, that doesn't seem terribly monumental... but it could be that there's an office/retail component or maybe it's a high-end brand. Or I guess it's even possible that it's just some "hype." Don't get me wrong. Any new hotel downtown is significant, but this is being billed as a "major development" so I kind of don't know what to think.

[Southron]

This is great news for downtown. It should help generate more activity after 5 pm.

[Alabadrock]

I'm not entirely convinced the new hotel will be new construction. If it is new construction, I'd love to see it be a huge tower, but I just don't know. I don't necessarily want to see a 17-story tower razed for a 6-story midrise or something. Now if it's taller than 17-stories, I wouldn't as much mind it being razed and rebuilt.

The whole thing is a bit puzzling. They're calling this a "major development," but at just 255-units or so, that doesn't seem terribly monumental... but it could be that there's an office/retail component or maybe it's a high-end brand. Or I guess it's even possible that it's just some "hype." Don't get me wrong. Any new hotel downtown is significant, but this is being billed as a "major development" so I kind of don't know what to think.

[dfwtiger]

I'm not entirely convinced the new hotel will be new construction. If it is new construction, I'd love to see it be a huge tower, but I just don't know. I don't necessarily want to see a 17-story tower razed for a 6-story midrise or something. Now if it's taller than 17-stories, I wouldn't as much mind it being razed and rebuilt.

The whole thing is a bit puzzling. They're calling this a "major development," but at just 255-units or so, that doesn't seem terribly monumental... but it could be that there's an office/retail component or maybe it's a high-end brand. Or I guess it's even possible that it's just some "hype." Don't get me wrong. Any new hotel downtown is significant, but this is being billed as a "major development" so I kind of don't know what to think.

[Blazer85]

Any new hotel downtown is a major development in my opinion. When was the last time we got a new hotel...not counting the re-branding of existing hotels downtown.

When is it going to be anounced?...that is.....the name of the hotel?

[Blazer85]

Press conference gave no indication of the hotel brand. It was, however, confirmed that it will basically be a renovation of the 240,000 square foot, 17-story former Regions HQ building. The Raleigh, NC-based Concord Hospitality plans to convert it into a 4-star hotel.

Some of the brands Concord now manages include: Marriott, Radisson, Renaissance, etc.

[Southron]

Great to see that this will be a 4-star hotel. The old Tutwiler site deserves nothing less than a first-class treatment.

[Blazer85]

Tentative street-level rendering (looks very nice, I might add)...

Some more of the details...

Estimated cost: $52 million

Construction start: Mid 2008

Construction end: 2009

Other details: Current parking deck associated with the building is expected to be doubled in size. The former Regions HQ building still holds about 400 office workers now. Not sure where they'll be relocated to, but this is to take place before mid 2008.

[convulso]

that street-level rendering looks nice! damn! drove past this site last night; the whole downtown couldn't have been deader (it was sunday, though...)

did regions just move everything into the amsouth tower? in other words, does regions have a need for a tower that the current amsouth tower can't fulfill?

[DRJWAREAGLE]

Didn't AmSouth own both the Am-South Sonat Tower and the Harbert Center? If so Regions should have pleanty of room. By the way, where did you find those renderings?

[Blazer85]

AmSouth occupied only a portion of the Harbert Center I believe. The Amsouth Center (now the Regions Financial Center) was, to my knowledge, the primary AmSouth building. I would be interested to know how much space Regions currently occupies in the Regions Financial Center... there are 400 that they'll need to find room for that were in the old Regions HQ building... and they also plan to add something like 500-1,000 new positions in Birmingham over the next year or two.

As for the renderings, I got them from Birmingham Weekly.

[Birmingham Bound]

AmSouth occupied only a portion of the Harbert Center I believe. The Amsouth Center (now the Regions Financial Center) was, to my knowledge, the primary AmSouth building. I would be interested to know how much space Regions currently occupies in the Regions Financial Center... there are 400 that they'll need to find room for that were in the old Regions HQ building... and they also plan to add something like 500-1,000 new positions in Birmingham over the next year or two.

As for the renderings, I got them from Birmingham Weekly.

[convulso]

^ i'm kinda curious about quick, easy-to-memorize rules of thumb that equate a building's floor space with its capacity to hold people - stats that vary depending on whether a bldg. (or floor) is residential, office, retail, etc. - you know, a floor that's x square feet typically accommodates y number of office workers, and so forth.

i guess mentally calculating a building's general cost vs. floor space vs. use capacity is second nature for structural engineers, architects, urban planners, etc. anyone know the guidelines? a link?

[SweetHomeColorado]

^ i'm kinda curious about quick, easy-to-memorize rules of thumb that equate a building's floor space with its capacity to hold people - stats that vary depending on whether a bldg. (or floor) is residential, office, retail, etc. - you know, a floor that's x square feet typically accommodates y number of office workers, and so forth.

i guess mentally calculating a building's general cost vs. floor space vs. use capacity is second nature for structural engineers, architects, urban planners, etc. anyone know the guidelines? a link?

[Blazer85]

Fairly recently, I read that Birmingham's office space was about 86% occupied or so. Given that the Regions Plaza building is about to be converted into hotel space, that then reduces the office space in the city center by 240,000 square feet-- nearly a quarter of a million square feet. Maybe not enough to warrant a new tower, but it certainly will cause a jump in the office space occupancy rates.

[convulso]

This obviously can vary greatly... ...but I have seen that figure used in several circles.

[DRJWAREAGLE]

Any updates on this project?

[Blazer85]

Looks like the city council approved about $2.7-million in incentives which will allow this project to become a reality. I'm glad the city saw the need and potential of this project. I think it will go a long way in improving the image of at least the downtown area of Birmingham.

[eastcentralalabamateen]

Any new hotel downtown is a major development in my opinion. When was the last time we got a new hotel...not counting the re-branding of existing hotels downtown.

When is it going to be anounced?...that is.....the name of the hotel?

[Jim856796]

I wanted to revive this thread because of the fact that I don't know how the Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 3 (which is located next to Regions Plaza) is going to be expanded. The expansion of this garage is going to support in part the conversion of the former office building into a Renaissance Hotel.

[| BRAVO |]

I heard today this project is delayed because of problems securing financing. If Harbert can't secure financing???

Hopefully, we'll see some movement this summer.