The first hotel west of the Embassy Suites in west Little Rock, a $13.5 million Aloft Hotel, is scheduled to open in early 2020, one of its backers said Monday.
A building permit has been obtained by Promenade Hospitality LLC for the four-story, 127-room development on a roughly 3-acre site on Rahling Road near Chenal Parkway and across Rahling from the Promenade at Chenal shopping center.
Promenade Hospitality, headed by Bhu Makan, and James and Terry Barnes purchased acreage in the Chenal Kanis subdivision from Deltic Timber Corp. in December 2017 for $3.4 million.
Other partners in the project include Brandon Huffman -- whose company, Huffman Contractors Inc., is building the hotel -- and Kalpesh Makan, Bhu Makan said.
Bhu Makan is behind The Burgundy Hotel, a 49-room boutique hotel on which he spent $2 million and more than a year to transform what was once a Best Western Governors Suites at 1501 Merrill Drive. It features the upscale Table 28 restaurant.
In an interview, Bhu Makan said he and his partners believed the timing was right for a new hotel in Chenal, a 4,800-acre planned community featuring upscale residential, retail, dining, medical, educational and professional services on land owned by what now is the PotlachDeltic Corp.
"There's nothing past the Embassy Suites," he said. "We really feel that there's a need out in that area."
The 250-room Embassy Suites opened in the 1990s and is about 4.5 miles east of the new hotel.
The Aloft is the first in Little Rock and second in Arkansas. The other Aloft in the state is in Rogers.
The 10-year-old boutique brand was developed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide before the latter was acquired by Marriott International two years ago. Aloft has 111 properties in the United States and more than 50 international properties.
The brand is aimed at millennial business travelers, Bhu Makan said.
Aloft features a bar called W XYZ that will serve appetizers.
"It's got a pretty nice happy hour evening social area," Bhu Makan said. "It would be not just for the patrons there but for others that can come out from the local area."
The brand is known for providing venues for live music and contests featuring local talent.
"We'll have about 3,000-square foot event space inside and about a 5,000-square-foot outside event space that will be able to hold various different types of events," Bhu Makan said.
Business on 11/27/2018