Here's our latest roundup of business hotel news from the U.S. and abroad -- openings, closings, rebrandings and such...

September 2008

St. Regis reopens in D.C.; London’s Grosvenor House now a Marriott

Power players in the nation’s capital will welcome the reopening this month of Starwood’s St. Regis Washington D.C. following a total renovation; located two blocks from the White House, the St. Regis has added a power restaurant, Adour – with “a fresh and modern interpretation of Alain Ducasse’s cuisine,” the hotel says … Outside Washington, Marriott has cut the ribbon on the Residence Inn National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Prince Georges County, Maryland … In New York City, the three-star hotel formerly known as The Marcel has been transformed into a four-star property called The Marcel at Gramercy; it’s in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood at Third Avenue and 24th Street … Corporate housing specialist Furnished Quarters has added a new rental apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., called Third Square … Newly opened in Baltimore is the 757-room Hilton Baltimore Convention Center Hotel, owned by the city … Atlanta’s newest hotel is the Country Inn & Suites By Carlson in the city’s Buckhead section … Country Inn & Suites has also opened a new property in Wilmington, N.C. … In Illinois, InterContinental has celebrated the grand opening of the 556-room InterContinental Chicago O’Hare in suburban Rosemont, five minutes from the airport … Starwood is gaining two new properties in Arizona this month; The W Scottsdale Hotel & Residences has just opened, and the company is due to cut the ribbon later this month on the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, adjacent to the city’s convention center... Napa, Calif., just north of San Francisco/Oakland has a brand new Starwood property, the Westin Verasa.

Overseas, London’s iconic Grosvenor House has finished a four-year renovation project and re-emerged as Grosvenor House - a JW Marriott Hotel, with weekday rates starting at $490 a night plus VAT; the hotel has a hot new dining venue, a French brasserie called Bord’eaux … Outside London, there’s a newly opened Ramada hotel two miles from Heathrow Airport … In Poland, the Best Western Premier Hotel is opening this month in Krakow …In Turkey, Hyatt was due to cut the ribbon this month on the Park Hyatt Istanbul, built inside the facade of an historic art deco palace … In China, two InterContinental properties that opened recently for Olympics guests are slated to start taking all guests in September: the InterContinental Beijing Beichen and the InterContinental Qingdao … Also in Beijing, Shangri-La this month debuts its fifth property in the city, the Traders Upper East Hotel … Elsewhere in China, the Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongpu is due to open in September … There’s a new Four Seasons Hotel in Macau … Newly opened in Kuala Lumpur after a six-month renovation is The Club at The Saujana Kuala Lumpur, a five-star boutique property that has won admission to The Leading Hotels of the World … And in India, Novotel has opened a property at Hyderabad Airport.

August 2008

Four Points opens in NYC's Soho; Swire Group debuts in Beijing

In New York City, a late August opening is slated for the Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Soho Village, at Varick and Charlton streets, near the Holland Tunnel entrance … Starwood opened one of its new Aloft hotels, a division of W Hotels with trendy loft-style rooms, half a mile from Philadelphia Airport … Aloft isn’t the only new hotel brand with loft-style accommodations; another is NYLO Hotels, which just opened a property in Rhode Island – the NYLO Providence/Warwick, in Pontiac Mills … There’s another new Aloft hotel in Minneapolis, on Washington Avenue across from the famed Guthrie Theater … Also newly opened in Minneapolis is one of Starwood’s W properties – W Minneapolis-The Foshay, in the renovated Foshay Tower … Yet another new hotel in downtown Minneapolis is The Hotel Minneapolis-A Doubletree Hotel, at 2nd Avenue and 4th Street, in the restored Midland Building dating to 1906 … The historic Allerton Hotel on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile has reopened after an $85 million modernization project … In South Carolina, there’s a new Aloft Charleston Airport & Convention Center … The Sheraton Jacksonville (Florida) is set for an August 31 opening in the southeast part of the city … In Houston, the former Wyndham Greenspoint is now the Hilton Houston North … A new Country Inn & Suites by Carlson has opened near Oklahoma City's airport ... And in Canada, a new Four Points by Sheraton has opened in Victoria, B.C.

Overseas, China – especially Beijing – continues as the capital of hotel development. The renowned Swire Group has started a hotel subsidiary, and just opened its first luxury property, the Opposite House in Beijing, located at The Village at Sanlitun, a Swire shopping and entertainment complex … After a raft of luxury hotel openings in Beijing, some moderately-priced properties are also coming on the market --- The Doubletree by Hilton Beijing just opened in the new Lar Valley International mixed-use project; and France’s Accor Group has cut the ribbon on the Novotel Beijing Sanyuan and the Hotel Ibis Beijing Sanyuan … In Hong Kong, meanwhile, a mid-August opening was set for Starwood’s W Hong Kong, on the West Kowloon waterfront … Sofitel opened a luxury hotel in the historic city center of Macau, called the Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 … And in Thailand, there’s a new Le Meridien property in Chiang Mai … In Europe, a late August debut is planned for Melia Hotels’ ME Barcelona, housed in a 29-story high-rise … Swissotel has cut the ribbon on the Swissotel Bremen in Germany, a few minutes from the city’s historic market square.

July 2008

Renaissance opens in Boston; Park Hyatt comes to Beijing

New hotel openings in the U.S. include the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, part of the Marriott family; the 500-room property is just east of the Financial District, close to the convention center … Just off Route 128 in suburban Lexington, Mass., Starwood had a double opening – a new Aloft hotel, aimed at younger business travelers; and the first of its new Element brand, an extended-stay property …In New York City, the hotel formerly known as The Premier at Millennium Broadway on West 44th Street – an upscale extension of the Millennium Broadway Hotel --has relaunched under the name The Premier Hotel as an independent property … Across the East River in downtown Brooklyn, a new boutique property called the Nu Hotel opened at Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue, from the same company that operates the trendy Duane Street Hotel in Manhattan’s Tribeca … There’s a newly opened Sheraton JFK Airport a half mile from the terminals … Look for Four Points by Sheraton to debut in center city Philadelphia later this month… In Minnesota, the Sheraton St. Paul Woodbury Hotel will open this month, a mile from the 3M headquarters … In late July, Starwood will open a new Aloft hotel in Rosemont, Ill., serving Chicago O’Hare … In Ohio, there’s a new Hilton Columbus/Polaris, off I-71 and Polaris Parkway, 12 miles from Columbus Airport … The former Wyndham hotel in Toledo is being converted this month into a Crowne Plaza …A new Staybridge Suites property opened in downtown Indianapolis … In the Southport retail/commercial development outside Omaha, Embassy Suites has cut the ribbon on the 257-unit Embassy Suites Omaha/LaVista Hotel & Conference Center … Milwaukee has a brand new boutique hotel called The Iron Horse, a conversion of a 100-year-old downtown warehouse with a unique marketing concept: it says it’s the first “upscale hotel geared for business travelers and motorcycle enthusiasts alike” … Down South, there’s a new Sheraton in downtown Columbia, S.C. … In North Carolina, Marriott has opened the Marriott Raleigh City Center … Country Inns & Suites by Carlson has a new hotel in the historic center of Savannah, Ga. … The Sheraton Miami Mart Hotel is now the Miami Mart Airport Hotel …In Texas, there’s a new Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa a block form that city’s convention center … Another new Aloft hotel by Starwood opened its doors in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., off I-10 in the HavenPark development … In Orange County, Calif., there’s a new Renaissance ClubSport Hotel & Fitness Resort in Aliso Viejo, close to John Wayne Airport … and way up north, Embassy Suites has opened a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska.

Overseas, Hyatt is due to cut the ribbon this month on the Park Hyatt Beijing, occupying the upper floors of the Beijing Yintai Centre, the city’s tallest building; it’s in the heart of the city’s central business district ... July 28 is the scheduled opening date for the new Hilton Beijing Wangfujing, located along Wangfujing Commercial Street in one of the city’s top shopping, dinng and nightlife districts … A July opening is also slated for the new Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian … Elsewhere in China, Marriott opened a 333-room hotel in central Ningbo, a seaport city two and a half hours from Shanghai … In South Korea, Accor Hotels is due to open a new Novotel hotel this month in the city center of Daegu, the first international-standard hotel in that city … In Vietnam, the former City Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City is now the Movenpick Hotel Saigon … And in Egypt, a new Sheraton Dreamland Hotel & Conference Center is due to open this month in Giza.

June 2008

NYC’s Empire Hotel reopens; Four Seasons debuts in Florence, Istanbul

In New York City, the historic Empire Hotel, which sat vacant for several years, has reopened under new ownership after a complete makeover; it’s at West 63rd Street and Broadway, across the street from Lincoln Center …A June 19 opening is planned for a new Holiday Inn-Manhattan Sixth Avenue in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood, on West 26th Street … In Boston, a new Regent hotel was supposed to open this summer in the waterfront Battery Wharf development, but Regent Hotels pulled out of the management deal, pushing back the opening probably until the fall, according to media reports … In Center City Philadelphia, the former Inn at Locust has reopened as an upscale, 24-room boutique property called The Independent; it’s on the National Register of Historic Places … Starwood Hotels has kicked off its new Aloft brand (although they prefer to spell it with a lower-case “a”), boutique-style properties targeting younger business travelers; the first one is open now at Montreal Airport, and another will debut during early July in Rogers, Arkansas, next to Bentonville, the home of Wal-Mart … Northeast of downtown Atlanta, the former Radisson Atlanta Northlake is now the Doubletree Hotel Atlanta NE/Northlake … In the Phoenix area, the former Holiday Inn in Tempe is now one of Starwood’s Four Points properties after an eight-month renovation … In Santa Cruz, Calif., south of San Jose on the coast, Joie de Vivre Hospitality has taken over the Central Coast Hotel and remade it into the Santa Cruz Dream Inn … Down the coast in Monterey, Calif., a June opening is planned for the InterContinental – The Clement, on Cannery Row … In Los Angeles, Kimpton Hotels has cut the ribbon on the Hotel Palomar Los Angeles-Westwood, located two blocks from UCLA … In Colorado, the former Radisson Hotel Denver Southeast is now the Red Lion Hotel Denver Southeast … There’s a new Cambria Suites hotel at Indianapolis Airport; that’s a Choice Hotels brand … And there’s a new Doubletree in Springfield, Mo., formerly the Hawthorn Park Hotel.

In Europe, Four Seasons Hotels is now accepting guests at two newly opened properties – the Four Seasons Firenze in Florence, built within an historic palace and convent near the city center; and the Four Seasons Istanbul at the Bosphorus, a conversion of a 19th-century Ottoman palace … At London Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5, a new Sofitel is due to open its doors in late June; it is directly connected to the British Airways terminal … Regent Hotels has opened a new property in Bordeaux, France, featuring “a multi-story wine cave lined with thousands of regional bottles” … The Dutch-based Golden Tulip hotel group is starting a new extended-stay brand called Tulip Residences, and the first one just opened in the center of Copenhagen … In Asia, there’s a new Crowne Plaza hotel at Singapore’s Changi Airport, offering direct access to Terminal 3 … In Vietnam, Best Western set a June 15 opening date for the Best Western Pearl River Hotel Haiphong … Sheraton added a new tower to the Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers; rooms start at 55 square meters, and come equipped with high-speed Internet and high-tech TVs … In China, Westin is due to open the Westin Beijing Chaoyan this month, part of a large mixed-use complex in the Liangma He district … And in Central America, there’s a new Holiday Inn in Panama at the City of Knowledge, a research complex next to the Panama Canal.

May 2008

Two new Westins near D.C.; Hilton opens in Moscow

Hotel openings of note include two new Westins in the greater Washington D.C. area – the Westin National Harbor, part of a big mixed-use project in Prince George County, Maryland, across the Potomac from Old Town Alexandria; and the Westin Reston Heights in Reston, Va., near Dulles International Airport … There’s also a new Westin hotel in Mount Laurel, N.J., six miles from downtown Philadelphia … In New York City, actor Robert deNiro is one of the owners of the new Greenwich Hotel, a downtown luxury property on Greenwich Street in TriBeCa … Farther south, a May opening is scheduled for The Mansion on Peachtree, a Rosewood Hotel in Atlanta with rooms of 480 square feet and larger … Another new Atlanta property is Starwood’s W Atlanta Midtown, on 14th Street NE, near Piedmont Park … Over in Savannah, Ga., there’s a new Cambria Suites (part of Choice Hotels) at the airport …In Florida, the former Miami Biscayne Hotel is now the Hilton Miami Downtown … Another new Westin Hotel has opened in Huntsville, Ala., part of the Bridge Street Town Centre development … In Dallas, a May 30 debut is planned for The Joule, a new member of Starwood’s Luxury Collection; it’s a restoration of a 1920s building at 1530 Main Street … Also in Dallas, the former Adam’s Mark is now the Sheraton Dallas … In California’s Silicon Valley, the former Radisson Hotel in Sunnyvale is now the Domain Hotel, a member of the Joie de Vivre group … Joie de Vivre has also opened The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento, a restoration of the 82-year-old Cal Western Life building … And in Los Angeles, the former Bel Age Hotel has been reincarnated as the London West Hollywood, with culinary activities directed by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Overseas, a May opening is set for the Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya Hotel; it’s about half an hour from the Kremlin and next to three metro stations … Starwood’s W Hotels this month opens its first property in Europe – the W Istanbul, in the city’s Besiktas district near the Bosphorus Strait … In Germany, there’s a new five-star hotel called, modestly, Fleming’s Hotel Deluxe in Frankfurt’s city center … Next to the Dusseldorf Airport, Maritim Hotels has opened a 533-room property with lots of meeting space… Moving to Asia, Starwood has opened the St. Regis Singapore, located in the downtown embassy district near Orchard Road … Marriott has cut the ribbon on its fourth property in Hong Kong; this one is a Courtyard in the Sai Ying Pan district on Hong Kong Island, near the waterfront … In China, Swissotel Hotels has opened the Swissotel Grand in Shanghai, its third China property … Millennium Hotels has held the soft opening of its 521-room Grand Millennium Beijing … and Germany’s Kempinski Hotels this month opens a 456-room hotel in Suzhou.

April 2008

Chicago gets dual-branded Marriott; Zurich’s Dolder Grand reopens

In Chicago, there’s a new dual-branded Marriott property at 410 N. Dearborn – the Residence Inn and SpringHill Suites Downtown River North, with a combined total of 523 rooms … The Chicago City Centre Hotel & Sports Club – previously known as the Holiday Inn City Centre -- will be transformed by this summer into the Doubletree Hotel Chicago Magnificent Mile … Chicago’s new Avenue Hotel, opening in May on E. Huron just off Michigan Ave., will have 200 rooms and 150 suites; it will offer special “Tech Rooms” equipped with iMacs, dedicated T-1 Internet links and printers … In New York City, Morgans, the original boutique property of Morgans Hotel Group at Madison Avenue and 37th Street, will close down from May 18 through September for a renovation … InterContinental Hotels Group has opened one of its new-concept Indigo hotels in Newton, Mass., outside Boston.

The newest property in Las Vegas is the 1,282-suite Trump International Hotel & Tower … In Texas, there’s a brand-new Grand Hyatt next to the convention center in San Antonio … The former Days Inn at the Dallas Market Center is now the Holiday Inn Market Center following a $7 million renovation … And West Houston has a new Four Points by Sheraton, Memorial City, at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Beltway 8 … Florida’s Orange County Convention Center is across the street from the newly opened Westin Imagine Orlando … Manhattan’s hip Gansevoort Hotel now has a Florida counterpart – the Gansevoort South Hotel has opened (where else) in trendy South Beach, boasting a big rooftop pool and bar … The former Radisson at West Palm Beach (Fla.) Airport is now a Doubletree … Doubletree also has a new Doubletree Guest Suites hotel in Bentonville, Ark., home of Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods … In Arizona, Tucson Airport has a new Hilton Garden Inn just a mile from the terminals … In Minnesota, Hilton Hotels has opened a new property in suburban Bloomington, not far from the Mall of America ... In Maryland, the new Legacy Hotel and Meeting Centre has opened in suburban Rockland, just outside Washington D.C.

Outside the U.S., a May opening is set for Vancouver’s L’Hermitage Hotel, a 60-suite boutique property in the city center … Intercontinental Hotels Group, which already has an InterContinental and a Holiday Inn in San Jose, Costa Rica, has added a new Crowne Plaza there as well … In Europe, there's a new Swissotel in Tallinn, Estonia … The historic Dolder Grand in Zurich has finally reopened after a four-year, $400 million restoration and renovation … In Asia, Four Seasons Hotels has opened its first India property, in Mumbai’s Worli district … Travelers to Vietnam can check out the new InterContinental Hanoi Westlake … Hotels continue to open at a rapid pace in China – In Qingdao, there’s a new 438-room InterContinental, and the Shangri-La Hotel there just opened a new 20-story Valley Wing extension … In April, InterContinental will open the InterContinental Beijing North next to the Olympic National Stadium … An April debut is also planned for the Grand Hyatt Guanzhou … and Starwood has cut the ribbon in a Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Changshu.