Two new hotels are in development now within 1,000 feet of each other on Kissimmee’s W192 corridor, but they will provide very different guest experiences.
Rosemont Hotels President Alex Ekbatani told GrowthSpotter his construction team from Barton Malow is pouring footers now for a new $30 million property that will be the first in the company’s 4-star ette hotels brand.
“It’s going to be a very different product for the Orlando area,” he said. “It will be very guest-centric – from the interior decor to the level of serve to the overall value we deliver to the guests. It will be a boutique experience.”
Rosemont engaged Jonathan Nehmer + Associates (JN+A), a Rockville, Maryland firm that specializes in hospitality design, along with its interior design division, HVS Design. Ekbatani said the architects are revising the final designs, so renderings won’t be available for at least a week.
Ekbatani, who has a marketing and branding background, helped create the name, which stands for “earthy, true, timeless, elegant.”
The 6-story hotel will have a 116 standard king and queen guest rooms and 10 suites with valet service, a full restaurant and 24-hour room service, a spa, fitness center, theater room, kids’ lounge and elegant rooftop lounge. The family-friendly hotel will not serve alcohol but will have an extensive menu of “mocktails.”
Ette Hotels’ ownership group is based in Canada, and Ekbatani will personally manage the hotel.
“We’ve traveled the world an analyzed hotels to come up with this very unique concept,” he said. “We are going to be the first hotel in the world to have an open concept back-of-house laundry facility. We are so going to be so meticulous in our laundry service that we want our guests to be able to look through a window and see it.”
The hotel site was entitled by Elevation Development as part of its Parkview project at W192 and Sherberth Road. A formal groundbreaking is planned for next week.
Meanwhile, the largest WoodSprings Suites franchisee in the United States paid $1.935 million this week for a 3-acre lot at 7727 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy, next to the Comfort Inn Maingate. The buyer, an affiliate of Kansas-based Brookwood Hotels, has approved building permits for a 120-room extended-stay hotel.
Brookwood, based in the Washington, D.C. area, announced a deal in October 2018 with Choice Hotels to develop more than 20 new WoodSpring Suites over the next few years. The Kissimmee site is part of that aggressive national expansion.
“WoodSpring Suites is a proven performer in the extended-stay segment and we’re excited to increase our investment in the brand,” Brookwood COO Darien Wright said in a prepared statement.
The seller, Aziz Visram, took the property through a rezoning in 2018 for the future hotel development. Brookwood secured the Site Development Permit and building permits in the summer.
Brookwood Hotels is a hospitality platform company which was formed simultaneously with the acquisition of the WoodSpring Suites brand by Choice Hotels in February 2018. The Company owns more than 100 hotels in the economy extended-stay segment across the U.S., with the largest concentration in Florida. The Company is owned by a Brookfield Asset Management-sponsored private real estate fund.
Kimley-Horn is the project engineer, and Integrated Construction is the general contractor.
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