Downtown Atlanta's run of high-rise hotel construction ahead of the 2026 World Cup shows little sign of slowing, and one of its longest-stalled entries just found its footing. Developers filed for permits this week to begin building a Residence Inn by Marriott at 355 Centennial Olympic Park Drive, a vacant corner where a hotel has been envisioned for more than five years.
The filings with the Department of City Planning mark the first permitting activity at the site since early 2023. That is a meaningful reversal: the property came to market in August as a package deal for the land plus permitted plans at $14.5 million, after Houston-based High End Investments walked away from developing it. City records now list the owner as Soneri Investment Group, a boutique private real estate investment firm based in Texas.
The approved plans are unchanged in substance. The 14-story building carries 188 rooms, with guests housed on the top nine floors and the bottom five stories given over to 129 parking spaces and EV charging, wrapped in a perforated screen. Niles Bolton Associates, the Atlanta firm behind the interior, exterior, and landscape design, also drew a third-party bar and restaurant at street level, a pool deck over Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard, and a terrace facing the park.
The .8-acre parcel is a former gravel lot that has been fenced off and barely used for years, sitting diagonal from downtown's signature park. Many of the hotel's rooms would look out over the Georgia Aquarium, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and World of Coca-Cola. Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where World Cup matches will be played, is a mile away.
Whether it opens in time is a separate question from whether it starts. Filing permits in December 2024 for a 14-story hotel leaves an extremely tight runway to June 2026, and the surrounding blocks are already absorbing a great deal of new supply — Signia by Hilton's nearly 1,000 rooms delivered earlier in the year, the 183-room Moxy is due in the second quarter of 2026, and Centennial Yards has its own hotels topping out. What matters for the corner itself is simpler: after five years of renderings, something is finally scheduled to be built on it.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published December 2024.
