Portman buys Atlanta’s tallest hotel, reacquiring tower its founder built

Time is often a flat circle — or in this case, a cylinder.

Portman Holdings, a development firm that designed and built many of Atlanta’s recognizable skyscrapers, on Thursday announced one of its funds had reacquired one of the developer’s tallest landmarks: the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel.

The 73-story behemoth, which includes 1,073 rooms, was the tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1976, and it still ranks as America’s third tallest. Founded by the late architect and developer John C. Portman Jr., his namesake company sold the hotel in the 1980s amid tough financial times.

But the reacquisition aims to breathe new life into the aging hotel. The purchase is the first in a new hospitality fund Portman established to acquire and renovate “big box” hotels in major markets that just need a little TLC.

Westin Peachtree Plaza Atlanta was designed and built by John Portman. It is well known for its revolving Sundial restaurant. (Courtesy of Portman Holdings)

Wrapped in glass and acting as a reflective mirror among downtown’s skyline, the hotel is poised to undergo a renovation by Portman to reposition it before Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl in 2028.

“The Westin Peachtree Plaza is exactly the kind of asset we built the fund to capture,” Kaunteya Chitnis, managing director of hospitality at Portman, said in a news release.

He called it “a world-class brand, irreplaceable downtown real estate and a clear repositioning path that we have the in-house expertise to execute.”

Hospitality giant Marriott International is the hotel’s seller, but it will remain in Marriott’s portfolio as part of a long-term management agreement, the companies said.

“We are confident in (Portman’s) ability to realize the full potential of the iconic Westin Peachtree Plaza in the years ahead,” Cameron Read, Marriott International’s chief financial officer for the U.S. and Canada, said in the release.

The transaction’s details were not provided, and a deed for the sale had not been made public as of Friday morning. The property’s most recent appraised value was $120.4 million, according to Fulton County records.

Hospitality ‘in Portman’s DNA’

Portman’s development portfolio includes many of Atlanta’s most distinctive structures.

Under its founder, Portman developed the city’s second-tallest building, Truist Plaza, the Peachtree Center complex, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

In recent years, Portman’s companies also built Georgia Tech’s Coda and Spring Quarter in Midtown, the city’s newest office tower.