A piece of Sir Richard Branson's empire could be coming to Atlanta. The hotel piece.
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Miami developer Lionstone Development has been tapped by Virgin Hotels to expand the new concept throughout the US, including possible locations in Metro Atlanta.
We learned the news from Lionstone CEO Diego Lowenstein, who developed Virgin's debut hotel in Chicago last year. Diego says its plans in Atlanta are preliminary. The firm has scouted sites, but has yet to firm up a location.
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Part of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group companies, the Virgin Hotels concept is a lifestyle hotel that comes with some unique twists, including early check-in and late check-out, mini-bars with “fair prices” and rooms that separate lounge, dressing and bathrooms into mini-suites. It's a brand that Diego says could see upward of 40 locations—with between 200 and 300 units each—in the US and Canada.
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For now, the most imminent Virgin expansion is likely in South Florida—Lionstone's home turf—where the developer is scouting sites for at least two Virgin hotels, including in Miami Beach, Downtown Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Diego says. The debut location in Chicago opened inside the historic Dearborn Bank Building (here), a 27-story Art Deco redevelopment, in 2015.
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