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.

###