The Embassy Suites in downtown Chattanooga opened for business ahead of a grand opening in September.
The $60 million, 184-room hotel at 345 Broad St. was touted as the largest investment in downtown in more than a decade when Chattanooga-based Vision Hospitality Group broke ground in May 2023.
It opened for a soft launch Thursday afternoon, Kevin Warwick, the group’s vice president of design and construction, said Thursday at a meeting of the downtown Zoning Committee.
“I missed the opening, but I’m glad to be here,” Warwick told the committee. “It’s a very expansive building. It takes up most of the block.”
The original investment figure for the Embassy Suites was $54 million, but the cost upon completion was $60 million, a representative of Vision said in an email Friday.
Developers will host a grand opening celebration for the hotel at 4 p.m. Sept. 9.
Warwick visited the Zoning Committee to seek and gain approval for a large vertical Embassy Suites sign on the side of the hotel facing Broad Street.
The seven-story Embassy Suites stands where an L-shaped parking lot once wrapped around the AMC Majestic 12 movie theater. The hotel is the largest new building investment downtown since BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee completed its $299 million corporate headquarters on Cameron Hill in 2009.
Vision, Chattanooga’s largest hotel developer, has built or plans to build 20 hotels in the area. It developed the Edwin Hotel, which opened downtown in 2018, and the Kinley Chattanooga Southside hotel, which opened on Market Street in 2021.
Embassy Suites opens in downtown Chattanooga
Vision is developing Chattanooga’s first AC Hotel by Marriott on the corner of Broad and Main streets across from the Food City on the Southside. The $40 million, five-story hotel could open in early 2027.
The Hamilton County tourism industry draws in 10.7 million visitors a year, including 4.3 million overnight visitors, according to the Chattanooga Tourism Co.
Vision’s portfolio includes more than 60 hotels completed or planned in nine states.
DOWNTOWN HOTELS
Before its completion, the Embassy Suites was one of four downtown hotels under construction set to add a total of more than 650 hotel rooms.
Milwaukee-based HKS Holdings is renovating the historic Chattanooga Bank Building at 736 Broad St. into a 144-room Waymark by Hilton, and Chattanooga-based 3H Group is building a 123-room Caption by Hyatt at 105 W. Main St.
Both hotels are set to open this year, according to a recent report from downtown development nonprofit River City Co.
St. Louis-based Drury Development began construction in July on a roughly 200-room Drury Plaza Hotel at 301 Market St. The company tore down a historic Car Barn building, the longtime former home of the Sportsbarn athletic club, to make way for the hotel.
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at ddassow@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.