Ritz-Carlton Hotel could make Buckhead return with ground-up project

Quick on the heels of the Houston’s Buckhead closure near Lenox Square, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel could be headed back to the neighborhood to take the restaurant’s old place, according to Tomorrow’s News Today Atlanta, citing a “well-placed source.”

Houston’s closed last month, right after Atlanta rapper T.I. ended a boycott against the restaurant chain, which had allegedly discriminated against customers of color, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Now, ToNeTo reports, Houston’s’s former Lenox Road property, as well as the neighboring Ruby Tuesday-turned-Japanese eatery Katana, will be transformed into the sequel to Buckhead’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which was rebranded as Marriott’s “The Whitley” in November.

Google Maps

The whole shebang should measure around 1.5 acres, when complete.

Before then, the Ritz’s Buckhead hotel, boasting more than 500 rooms, had been running for more than three decades at 3434 Peachtree Road NE. However, “a return of The Ritz to Buckhead would likely come in the form of a hotel no larger than 250 rooms,” according to the website.

About a mile away, a Ritz-Carlton high-rise residential complex has been open since 2011, offering 127 units of high-brow living.

• SOURCE: The Ritz-Carlton to Return to Buckhead [ToNeTo Atlanta]
• T.I. calls off boycott of Houston’s; Lenox Road site closing [AJC]