Time is often a flat circle — or in this case, a cylinder.
Portman Holdings, a development firm that designed and built many of Atlanta’s recognizable skyscrapers, on Thursday announced one of its funds had reacquired one of the developer’s tallest landmarks: the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel.
The 73-story behemoth, which includes 1,073 rooms, was the tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1976, and it still ranks as America’s third tallest. Founded by the late architect and developer John C. Portman Jr., his namesake company sold the hotel in the 1980s amid tough financial times.
But the reacquisition aims to breathe new life into the aging hotel. The purchase is the first in a new hospitality fund Portman established to acquire and renovate “big box” hotels in major markets that just need a little TLC.
Credit: Courtesy of Portman Holdings
Credit: Courtesy of Portman Holdings
Wrapped in glass and acting as a reflective mirror among downtown’s skyline, the hotel is poised to undergo a renovation by Portman to reposition it before Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl in 2028.
“The Westin Peachtree Plaza is exactly the kind of asset we built the fund to capture,” Kaunteya Chitnis, managing director of hospitality at Portman, said in a news release.
He called it “a world-class brand, irreplaceable downtown real estate and a clear repositioning path that we have the in-house expertise to execute.”
Hospitality giant Marriott International is the hotel’s seller, but it will remain in Marriott’s portfolio as part of a long-term management agreement, the companies said.
“We are confident in (Portman’s) ability to realize the full potential of the iconic Westin Peachtree Plaza in the years ahead,” Cameron Read, Marriott International’s chief financial officer for the U.S. and Canada, said in the release.
The transaction’s details were not provided, and a deed for the sale had not been made public as of Friday morning. The property’s most recent appraised value was $120.4 million, according to Fulton County records.
Hospitality ‘in Portman’s DNA’
Portman’s development portfolio includes many of Atlanta’s most distinctive structures.
Under its founder, Portman developed the city’s second-tallest building, Truist Plaza, the Peachtree Center complex, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and Hyatt Regency Atlanta.
In recent years, Portman’s companies also built Georgia Tech’s Coda and Spring Quarter in Midtown, the city’s newest office tower.
But hospitality is arguably at the core of Portman’s work, and Atlanta was where the developer honed his craft.
Located at 210 Peachtree St NW, the Westin Peachtree Plaza added new scale to Atlanta. It also features a well-known rotating restaurant on its top floor called The Sun Dial Restaurant, which boast a 360-degree panoramic view of the city.
Portman’s Atlanta Marriott Marquis, which is known for its soaring open-air atrium, is a standout in the developer’s portfolio along with signature hotels in New York City’s Times Square and Shanghai, China.
“Hospitality is in Portman’s DNA,” Chitnis said.
But mounting debt and the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s prompted Portman to offload some of its buildings, including the Westin Peachtree Plaza. Marriott acquired the hotel in 2016 through its merger with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and paid $50 million in 2024 to acquire the land beneath the hulking hotel.
New opportunity for Portman
This is also not the first time Portman has revisited a past project. In 2016, Portman reacquired Peachtree Center’s first office tower known as 230 Peachtree to transform into a Hotel Indigo, refreshed office space and an upscale restaurant.
John Portman died in 2017 at age 93.
The development firm recently launched the Portman Hospitality Fund I, which aims at “pursuing branded, large-scale full-service hotels.”
The Westin Peachtree Plaza is the fund’s first acquisition, which Portman CEO and Chairman Ambrish Baisiwala said is part of a diversification effort.
“We remain focused on opportunities where active ownership, strategic reinvestment and a long-term perspective can create meaningful value for investors and the communities we serve,” he said in the release.
The size of the fund and the budget for the hotel’s renovation were not provided. The renovation will encompass the hotel’s guestrooms, public spaces and meeting facilities ahead of Super Bowl LXII.
Credit: Courtesy of Invest Atlanta
Credit: Courtesy of Invest Atlanta
The first step in that effort started Thursday. The Downtown Development Authority within Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, approved a loan to finance up to $65 million in water and energy improvements at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. It’s through a loan program called C-PACE, of which Invest Atlanta acts as a conduit for private financing.
“We’re not giving anybody $65 million,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, the head of Invest Atlanta’s board, said.
The capital provider is Nuveen Green Capital, it has a 26-year year term and is anticipated to lead to roughly $250,000 in annual energy and water cost savings while also eliminating CO2 emissions. A similar loan for up to $60 million in clean energy improvements was approved Thursday for the former CNN Center, which is being revamped into “The Center.”
The Westin sale and planned revamp joins other high-profile hotel projects downtown. Hotel Phoenix recently opened at Centennial Yards and Virgin hotel is planned at the $5 billion downtown mixed-use development. And a former W hotel downtown recently was renovated and received a new JW Marriott flag.
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