Near Georgia Aquarium, downtown Atlanta hotel development heating up

Downtown Atlanta is home to countless tourist attractions and venues that host hundreds of conferences a year, distinguishing the district from all others across the city.

The formula has created a hotelier hot zone, with more than 30 options for accommodations in the neighborhood. And now, there will be yet another.

Permit applications filed yesterday with the city indicate a local hotel developer plans to bring a Hyatt Place to a site across the street from the Georgia Aquarium. Plans for the development were first revealed this past summer.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the site on Luckie Street, just south of Ivan Allen, Jr. Boulevard, sold earlier this month.

Permit filings call for the demolition of a two-story midcentury building, which most recently served as a school. In its place will rise the hotel and accompanying parking deck, swallowing the .76-acre lot.

The hotel will hardly be the only new lodging option in the neighborhood.

A few years ago, a Hyatt House was built a block away, and on the other side of the aquarium, construction is wrapping up on a Springhill Suites. However, it hasn’t been all rosy for new hospitality ventures in the neighborhood, either.

Nearly two years ago, a massive new dual-branded Hilton property was slated for a site just a block from the proposed Hyatt Place, but was ultimately put on hold.

For more information on the sale, including the high price paid for the site, head over to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

• Downtown site sold for planned Hyatt Place by Georgia Aquarium [Atlanta Business Chronicle; subscriber]
• Near downtown Atlanta’s Centennial Park, new hotel could replace empty building [Curbed Atlanta]