Belz
Enterprises Adds Two New Hotels to Peabody Place. Embassy Suites
and Hampton Inn Bring 280 Hotel Rooms to Downtown Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (November 19, 1997) - Belz Enterprises announced today the addition of
two new hotels to Peabody Place.
Promus Hotel Corporation recently approved two franchises for the
Peabody Hotel Group to be built at Peabody Place, a Hampton Inn and Suites and an Embassy
Suites.
"There has always been a great demand for hotel rooms in downtown
Memphis," says Martin S. Belz, president Peabody Hotel Group. "Belz Enterprises
saw this need and found the perfect venue in Peabody Place to fill it."
The Hampton Inn and Suites will be built adjacent to The Peabody Place
garage at Peabody Place Avenue and Third Street. Providing approximately 130 rooms, the
Hampton Inn and Suites is slated to begin construction in June 1998 with the opening
targeted for summer 1999.
The Embassy Suites will be built on the corner of Gayoso Lane and Second Street in what is
currently a surface lot. Construction on the Embassy Suites, which will provide 150 rooms,
will begin in August 1998 with the opening scheduled for early fall 1999.
"Downtown Memphis is a strong market for these suite-type
products, and Promus delivers with what we consider to be the dominant brand in this
market," says Andrew J. Groveman, senior vice president marketing and administration,
Belz Enterprises. "Peabody Place is currently the largest mixed-use project underway
in the country. With the addition of these two hotels, we are expanding even further and
filling a niche in downtown Memphis."
The first residential component of Peabody Place, the Gayoso House
Apartments, opened in March 1995, and has since remained 100 percent leased. Other
components include 50 Peabody Place, which houses office space and street-level retail
shops, Pembroke Square, with space available for office and retail, the Grand Lobby of The
Gayoso House and The Tower at Peabody Place, the first Class A office building built in
downtown Memphis in more than 12 years. Retail components of Peabody Place include Ciao
Cucina, an Italian Mediterranean Trattoria, Breckenridge Brewery and Restaurant, The
Flying Saucer Draught Emporium and City Grocery, a specialty
grocery store.
Upon completion, Peabody Place will resemble a city within a city,
providing a large urban retail and entertainment center, apartments, office space,
boutiques, gift shops, restaurants, a hotel and business services.
Belz Enterprises is a leading innovator in real estate development with
interests throughout the South and much of the country. Belz develops, owns and manages
over 25 million square feet of industrial/warehouse/distribution centers, shopping
centers,
office buildings, mixed-use centers and corporate campuses. The company also owns a group
of premier hotels including the Peabody Hotels in Memphis and Orlando and various suburban
communities.
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