1950s condo building near Buckhead Village to be retrofitted as swanky hotel

Atlanta’s next planned boutique hotel will be taking the unique route of reclaiming not an old motor lodge, a massive parking pit, or an abandoned downtown building—but former condos in Buckhead.

Officials with Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants announced today they plan to launch an adaptive-reuse redo of a 1950s building near Buckhead Village’s shopping and dining as their next Atlanta lodge.

Expect a 216-room hotel—to be developed and owned by Atlanta’s Portman Holdings—at 374 East Paces Ferry Road. Features will include a Kimpton restaurant and bar at ground level, a courtyard dining and drinking venue, and a rooftop lounge, plus a private pool.

The eight-story building, designed in the early 1950s by Hiro Isogai with later updates by Niles Bolton Interior Design, was most recently the Sobu Flats Buckhead. Property records indicate the full building sold in September last year for just over $28 million.

According to earlier Livable Buckhead meeting notes, the hotelier’s intent is to renovate and restore the structure’s previous midcentury modern architectural style.

Project officials said Kimpton Buckhead, as it’s called, will open in late 2020. It will join another Kimpton property in the market—the Kimpton Overland Atlanta Airport, which opened earlier this year—and the brand’s 25 hotels worldwide.

Here’s the early marketing spiel:

“The high walkability of the neighborhood will allow guests to explore an array of activities within a stone’s throw of the Kimpton Buckhead, while local residents will surely term the property’s three restaurant and bar concepts signature hotspots in the area.”

Kimpton’s parent company, IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), is headquartered in Atlanta.

Officials noted that IHG has had a longstanding partnership with Portman, having developed multiple other properties in Atlanta plus markets such as Denver and San Diego.