New hotel planned for former Northlake restaurant.
A new Home2 Suites by Hilton, an extended stay hotel, is being proposed on Northlake Parkway behind Northlake Mall. The five story, ninety-seven room hotel would replace a restaurant originally built as Bennigan's. The roughly 6,700 square foot restaurant had most recently operated as Lee's Buffet, an Asian restaurant, and before that Dynasty Garden, also an Asian restaurant.
The Home2 Suites will be situated to the left of an existing Marriott TownePlace, an extended stay brand from Marriott International. The Home2 will likely hope to capture some of the frequent "street team" business from the likes of Sabra, which was here recently for a multi-week promotion, and Keurig, which is currently here in support of their new Kold machine.
The new hotel will be owned by Anand Inc. (Dr. Arvind and Divya Patel.) The hotel is located within the boundaries of the contested City of LaVista Hills.
Upon visiting the property recently, I discovered a small lake behind the property. The lake, aptly named, "North Lake," is apparently private property for the exclusive use of those who reside around it. While not accessible, it's definitely a nice, scenic amenity.
"North Lake" as seen from the rear of the Home2 Suites property |
When it was launched in January 2009, Home2 Suites by Hilton became the first new brand introduced by Hilton Worldwide in twenty years.
Earlier this year, Hilton added two new hotel brands to their growing roster: Curio and Canopy. Curio, like the Autograph Collection by Marriott, is group of independent hotels that have partnered with Hilton to broaden their reach and gain access to Hilton's booking system. Canopy, of which there are currently no hotels open or listed as in development, is described as "Uncomplicated ease and uncommon value—always with a thoughtful, local and personal touch. The Hilton lifestyle brand for a surprisingly comfortable stay."
Typical Home2 Suites |
There are currently Georgia Home2 Suites in Augusta and Columbus. A location in McDonough is expected to open late next month. I previously broke news of another location planned for the historic Walton Building in downtown Atlanta. The downtown property is located at 87 Walton Street in a converted structure originally built in 1910. The 128-room hotel is still in the works, but has been pushed again, now planning to open in April 2016.
When it opens, the Home2 Suites hotel would be the first "ground up" hotel built in the Northlake area in years. In 2008, David Marvin's Legacy Property Group opened a 183 room DoubleTree Hotel in a renovated Radisson Hotel on LaVista Road at I-285, about a mile from the Home2 site.
As I previously reported, Ben F. Kushner Co. plans to redevelop their nearby office complex into a 200,000 square foot shopping center. The center, also located on Northlake Parkway, will be anchored by a Dick's Sporting Goods, among other retailers.
Are you excited about the upcoming hotel? What else would you like to see open in the Northlake/Tucker area? Were you for or against the City of LaVista Hills? Why?
Please share your thoughts below.
Please share your thoughts below.
10 comments:
Hard to be excited about a hotel, although it's good that it at least seems to be a step up from 'extended stay America'.
Interestingly, 'North Lake' was first called 'Kappa Lake'. I found this article on the land after noticing that Deltasig used to own the deed to our house.
http://issuu.com/deltasigmapi/docs/96291_deltasig_july_for_web/9
JR
The problem with extended stay hotels is when they become dated and eventually drop the corporate franchise branding, they can easily tun into cheap rent homeless shelters. Nice to see the Northlake area headed towards a bit of revitalization but it all could be too little and too late.
BRING BACK BENNIGANS!
There used to be a Quinn's Mill restaurant back there, which sat by the lake and was a nice place to eat. IMO, Northlake is rapidly becoming an area of transients and another extended stay motel won't improve things. The Mall is awful, haven't been there in years.
We used to call the lake Lodge Lake in the 70's. You could drive your
car (in my case an old VW) down a trail to the lake. There was a rope
swing that would put you pretty high in the air before you let go
and hit the water (well except that time a friend of mine was afraid
to let go and came back and hit the tree).
I believe this building was also an annex of the Punch Line in the
eighties where a comedian/magician was doing an escape jacket routine
where he was a hauled upside down by some sort of crane while the
rope that held him was lit on fire. Unfortunately it was pretty windy
that night, the rope burned through too quickly and he fell on his
head breaking his neck. Yep he died.
"Lodge Lake" must have been a leftover name from when it was the Delta Sig lodge. My earlier post said that Deltasig originally owned the house, which wasn't correct. Deltasig owned the land, and then sold the land (and the first homeowners were well connected Delta sig members).
JR
I can't say I'm excited about the new hotel; although, it is better than the current vacant building. Like others, I'm worried about long-term if/when it looses the Hilton brand and becomes low-rent.
Also in that immediate area, I'd like to see the Sports Authority shopping center be redeveloped. The new Dick's could put Sports Authority out of business. Since the company owns the whole center, it would be a good time to sell it and have someone create a good mixed-use development, saving the restaurants and post office for ground-level.
The current shopping center is valued by the county at only just over $1 million. There are homes in the immediate area that pay almost as much in property taxes as the Sports Authority center.
Used to be a hot area. Pen rods was great. Commodity Exchange. Quinn Mill just to name a few. Not many good restaurants in the area. Blue Ribbon doesn't have any competition to speak of.
We (and I know there are others that also) like Fork in the Road more than BRG. But the inspection scores of some of these places can be a bit scary, and FITR is on a major downward trend. Have also had good sushi and hibachi at Kobe House, but overall I agree that the dining choices in N'lake area are weak. Was a real bummer when Fuddruckers closed.
It'll take some seriously creative thought to change anything in the area. I don't anticipate getting any of that from city of Tucker leadership, and the other areas already voted against this type of thing.
~mindspringyahoo
I see DeKalb Strong has taken aim at this hotel. Who's into gating the community now?
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