Gwinnett hotel to get $20 million renovation

A 30-year-old Norcross hotel will be renovated and rebranded, the city announced.

The Garden Plaza on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, first opened in 1989, will be transformed into a Crowne Plaza, according to the city’s economic development department. Initial plans to renovate the hotel called for a Staybridge Suites, which is an extended-stay hotel.

READ | New Taco Mac coming to Gwinnett in 2020

Mayor Craig Newton told hotel developers he "would like to move away" from adding extended-stay hotels in the city. Norcross has the highest number of extended-stays in Gwinnett County. A city study, released in May, found that nine of the 14 extended-stay hotels in Norcross were used by many customers as a primary residence.  The Garden Plaza had extended-stay options.

“After several months of planning and negotiating, we made the numbers work from the cost of renovating another extended stay hotel to moving to a full-service, luxury brand and now, we are ushering in the city’s first four-star hotel,” Newton said in a statement.