Downtown’s latest hotel debuts, overlooking Georgia Aquarium

The recent groundswell of lodging options in downtown’s Luckie-Marietta District continues next door to America’s largest fish tank.

Hyatt Place Centennial Park has officially opened with 175 rooms at 300 Luckie Street, following about a year of construction, reps with developer Songy Highroads and Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced this week.

The 11-story hotel stands around the corner from Centennial Olympic Park and across the street from the Georgia Aquarium, joining four other lodges in the works or recently finished within a few blocks.

“Atlanta is booming,” enthused Songy Highroads’s COO Todd Nocerini in a prepared statement, “and this hotel’s location puts it smack in the middle of some of the city’s crown-jewel attractions.”

The new Hyatt has a pool, fitness center, parking deck, and 2,100 square feet of meeting space.

At the base, retail space faces both Luckie and Marietta streets.

Project leaders are in talks with several retail groups, including food and beverage purveyors, but no leases have been signed yet, a rep tells Curbed Atlanta.

Designed by Alpharetta-based Wakefield Beasley & Associates, the hotel was built by Atlanta’s Reeves Young, whose principals helped erect the Georgia Aquarium 15 years ago.

It marks the sixth collaboration between Hyatt and Songy Highroads since 2014, with other recent projects that include two Hyatt properties near Houston’s Galleria shopping center, and the Hyatt House Nashville West End that opened last year.

The downtown Atlanta project wiped out surface parking and a two-story midcentury building that had most recently served as a school.

Elsewhere on the western side of downtown, a Hyatt House and SpringHill Suites by Marriott have been built in the past few years.

A high-rise Georgia World Congress Center hotel that would overlook Mercedes-Benz Stadium is also in the pipeline.

And sources tell Curbed a planned Element Hotel at 445 Marietta Street is moving forward right now.

Meanwhile, plans now call for the aquarium’s $100 million new shark exhibit to open in late fall next year. And Centennial Olympic Park itself just underwent a $17 million expansion, which opened up downtown’s marquee green space and added new features.