Krog Street Market developer plans redo of aging Atlanta hotel

The Intown Suites hotel in Piedmont Heights near Cheshire Bridge Road overlooking I-85 was purchased by developer Paces Properties. The site will be redeveloped as a boutique hotel with Austin, Texas-based hospitality company Bunkhouse. SPECIAL

The Intown Suites hotel in Piedmont Heights near Cheshire Bridge Road overlooking I-85 was purchased by developer Paces Properties. The site will be redeveloped as a boutique hotel with Austin, Texas-based hospitality company Bunkhouse. SPECIAL

The developer of Atlanta's Krog Street Market plans to convert an aging extended stay hotel in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood of the city into an eclectic boutique hotel.

Atlanta-based Paces Properties said it has signed a deal with Texas hotelier Liz Lambert and her Austin-based hospitality company Bunkhouse to retrofit the aging Intown Suites extended stay hotel overlooking I-85. The new and as-yet-unnamed hotel will feature 162 rooms 48 commercial studio office spaces.

Bunkhouse is the hospitality firm behind Austin’s unique Austin Hotel and Hotel Saint Cecelia. Bunkhouse’s properties combine adaptive reuses of interesting structures and sometimes blend lodging types. It’s El Cosmico resort in Marfa, Texas, for instance, mixes trailers, yurts, safari tents and tepees.

The new Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin is named after the patron saint of musicians and poets, has a rock-and-roll theme and a posh vibe. Austinite Liz Lambert is the owner and creator. Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Stateman

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“We think it brings a new lodging option to Atlanta that heretofore wasn’t here,” Merritt Lancaster, a Paces executive, said in an interview.

The 1960s-era exterior-entry lodge is on Piedmont Circle NE near Cheshire Bridge Road.

A design and concept for the hotel is expected to be announced later in the year.

“It’s a rare opportunity to get to reinvent a classic mid-century motor court hotel — there aren’t many left in the country — and we can’t imagine a better partner in the project than the Paces team,” Lambert said in a news release.

The Intown Suites is an operating hotel and is occupied by about 70 to 80 people who have lived in the hotel for more than a year, Lancaster said. He said his firm is working with Action Ministries to provide assistance in finding new housing if necessary.

In an email, Marvin Nesbitt Jr., a senior vice president at Action, said “the ultimate goal of this partnership is to ensure that the residents residing at the Intown Suites are successful in navigating the relocation process.”

Action’s housing team, he said “will be assisting this group of residents with identifying permanent housing options and overcoming potential barriers to securing options that best meet their needs and provide long-term stability.”

The hotel is expected to close April 15, and re-open in 2019.

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