Birmingham
➤ The 100-room Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook boutique hotel will open in summer 2015 with a rooftop restaurant and bar, indoor dining area, indoor pool, sculpture garden, spa, cooking school and 12,600 square feet of meeting space.
➤ Work will soon begin on the Negro League Baseball Museum, a 15,750-square-foot facility next to Regions Field. In addition to 8,700 square feet of exhibit space, there will also be a rooftop restaurant, gift shop and area for special events. The museum is slated to open in April.
Huntsville/Madison County
➤ Two of the area’s eight craft breweries, Straight to Ale and Yellowhammer Brewery (www.yellowhammerbrewery.com), will relocate in early 2015 to a location adjacent to downtown. The new site, formerly a middle school, will be renovated into a 40,000-square-foot brewery, tap room and entertainment area for one business, a 6,000-square-foot brewery and tap room for the other, plus a 2,000-seat amphitheater for events. The city hopes that this expansion will draw more Gen Y and Millennial professionals and visitors to the area.
➤ Big Spring Square, a new mixed-use development adjacent to the Von Braun Center, will include a 100-room boutique hotel among the new dining and retail businesses. The as-yet-unnamed property is slated to open in July 2016.
➤ In Florence, the 200-room Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa recently finished a $3.5 million renovation. All guest rooms, public areas, suites and restaurants were renovated. The AAA Four Diamond facility offers 30,000 square feet of meeting space, including 19 meeting rooms and exhibition areas.
Gulf Coast
➤ The 170-room Admiral Semmes Hotel in Mobile will undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation in 2015, and the historic hotel will emerge by early 2016 as The Admiral, a boutique property with 151 guest rooms and five suites, 7,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant and a bakery/cafe with a bar and catering services. The hotel will remain open during the remodel.
➤ An 89-unit Hampton Inn is under construction in Gulf Shores. The facility is expected to open in spring 2015.
➤ Turquoise Place, a resort-style vacation rental property in Orange Beach that is managed by Spectrum Resorts, now offers meeting and reception options, including an executive boardroom. The two-tower facility (24 stories and 30 stories tall) overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.
➤ The 346-room Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach recently finished renovating its boardroom and will focus on renovating its restaurants by the end of 2014.
Auburn/Opelika
➤ Two new hotels are under construction in Auburn off Interstate 85: the 125-room Courtyard by Marriott and the Candlewood Suites, with approximately 100 rooms. Both are expected to open by summer 2015.