HOT HOTEL MARKET
A handful of hotels are underway or planned for downtown Chattanooga, adding more than 600 rooms if they’re all built:* Aloft Hotel, 150 rooms* St. George Hotel, 55 rooms* The Edwin, 90 rooms* Tru by Hilton, 114 rooms* Westin, 200 roomsSource: Developers
Downtown Chattanooga will see a new Hilton brand when a Tru hotel opens its doors in 2018, adding still more lodging in the central city amid a flurry of projects.
Vision Hospitality Group plans to bring the 114-room, seven-story hotel to Chestnut Street, said Andrew Hibbard, the Chattanooga-based company's vice president of finance and investment.
The $17 million hotel will go up on what's now a parking lot next to Vision's DoubleTree Hotel near Fourth Street, he said. A one-level parking deck will go beneath the new hotel that will service it along with the DoubleTree, Hibbard said.
"For us, as hoteliers first and foremost, we looked at what's missing from the Chattanooga market," he said about the addition of Hilton's new brand. "We're really excited about it. We think it will be dynamite."
Construction on the first Tru by Hilton started just last March outside Atlanta in McDonough, Ga., according to Hilton Worldwide.
Hibbard said the brand is competing for the modern traveler who has "a millennial mindset."
"It's someone who is looking for a great location, a nice hotel but who doesn't need all the bells and whistles," he said.
The Chattanooga-based Vision was part of a select group of hotel developers across the country that Hilton asked to figure out operations and building budgets for the brand, Hibbard said.
Vision Chief Executive Mitch Patel took part in working groups to help develop room design and other features for which travelers are looking, he said.
According to Hilton Worldwide, it had 189 Tru hotel deals in process earlier this year as it grows out the brand. The company describes Tru by Hilton as a mid-scale hotel providing "a simplified and spirited approach" for business and leisure travelers.
"Discover what cost-conscious meets cool-conscious looks like," the company says on its website about Tru.
The hotels will hold a four-zone lobby where guests can work, play, lounge, or eat. The lobby, which is called the Hive, has a dedicated space for each activity, according to the company, and Tru hotels offer free breakfasts with a toppings bar with 30 items.
Guestrooms include 55-inch TVs and 150 channels of DirecTV, spacious bathrooms with walk-in showers and lots of light, along with complimentary Wi-Fi, the company said.
The Tru hotel in Chattanooga, on which Vision wants to start construction this spring, is the sixth new lodging property either under construction or planned downtown. Vision already is building The Edwin boutique hotel with 90 rooms at Walnut Street and Aquarium Way.
Bob Doak, who heads the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the people investing tens of millions of dollars in downtown are "smart hoteliers."
"They wouldn't be building a hotel if they didn't think it would be profitable," he said. "They're not so much looking at past performance or today's occupancy but rather looking out in the future."
Also in downtown, Byron and Ken DeFoor are redoing BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee's old headquarters on Pine Street into a Westin hotel.
In addition, plans are to put another boutique hotel in the vacant St. George Hotel site on Market. Another developer has identified the former Chattanooga Bank Building as a site for an Aloft Hotel.
Meanwhile, a hotel is eyed for King and Market streets, and the Read House at Broad and M.L. King Boulevard is getting a $20 million makeover.
Hibbard said Vision did its homework amid all the other development before deciding to invest in the Tru by Hilton.
"We went out and did research," he said, adding that it brought in a third-party to analyze the Chattanooga market.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.