A South Downtown hotel project once called an important historical save and "jewel" of redevelopment hit real construction delays in early 2024 -- but sources close to the project said it was hardly dead on arrival.
The Origin Hotel Atlanta, a Wyndham Hotels and Resorts property, is converting a 1950s office building at 166 Pryor Street into a boutique hotel with 121 guest rooms and suites, a top-floor private event space, and an onsite restaurant and bar. The building sits about a block south of Underground Atlanta and two blocks west of the Georgia State Capitol -- roughly two blocks east of where developer Newport once revived Hotel Row before handing its portfolio to foreclosure, with Atlanta Ventures since taking over that redevelopment.
Wyndham officials referred questions to local franchisees, but Detric Fox-Quinlan -- owner of Butter + Scotch, the all-day restaurant concept signed on to operate inside the hotel -- confirmed both were now on pace for a spring or summer opening after real setbacks. "The construction crew ran into a few hurdles that have delayed us significantly, both for our restaurant Butter + Scotch, and the hotel as a whole," Fox-Quinlan, who also owns the celebrated Che Butter Jonez restaurant, wrote to Urbanize Atlanta. "But construction is back on track and everything promises to be absolutely beautiful upon completion." Both the restaurant and hotel had to resubmit alcohol license applications because of the delays, with a "go live" target of that summer, pending no further issues.
The building will feature a 50-foot lobby art installation as "a graceful nod to the neighborhood's thriving arts community," free bike rentals for guests, and loft-style interiors mixing high concrete ceilings with exposed brick and Atlanta-landmark-patterned wallpaper. It joins other Origin-branded hotels in Austin, Lexington, Baton Rouge, and Colorado's Red Rocks. Mississippi-based The Thrash Group paid $16 million for the six-story building two years earlier, drawn partly by its proximity to two MARTA stations, Five Points and Garnett.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published April 2024.
