Group plans 19 new hotels in metro area in next three years


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/19/08

Metro Atlanta will get more locations of Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo in the next three years.

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Steve Porter, president of the Americas for InterContinental Hotels Group, said Monday the company will open 19 hotels in Georgia's capital during that period and sees even more opportunity for expansion in the metro area down the road.

"I don't think we have reached our optimal position," Porter said, indicating that there are markets in the area that the company's seven brands can still penetrate.

The new hotels would bring more than 1,000 jobs to the metro area.

InterContinental is based in London but has its Americas office in Atlanta. About 70 percent of the company's hotels — which include the brands InterContinental, Candlewood Suites and Holiday Inn Express — are in the Americas.

Some of the hotel projects include a Crowne Plaza planned for Ben Carter's megadevelopment, Streets of Buckhead, and a Hotel Indigo downtown and in College Park.

Porter declined to discuss rumors of the company's opening an InterContinental Hotel — the chain's flagship brand — in Midtown. The accommodations community has been abuzz with speculation that InterContinental, Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin are yearning to build in the city hot spot.

"We have an InterContinental in Buckhead that continues to do very well," Porter said of the chain's Peachtree Street location.

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