ATLANTA— A vacant office building on Atlanta’s Peachtree Street has been converted into a boutique-, urban-style Residence Inn. Developer Songy Partners, which is headquartered in Atlanta, had looked at the property quite some time ago, but passed on it, Rick Patton, senior development officer told HOTEL BUSINESS®. “We had looked at the property as an office, but the floor plates didn’t work well for an office, they did work well for a hotel, however,” he said, noting that the property had long, open corridors and that the building itself is long and rectangular, which works well for a hotel. More recently, two other vacant buildings next door were taken over by the dot-com company Earthlink/Mindspring. Subsequently, Songy Partners decided to take over the site and convert it to a 160-suite hotel, marking the developer’s foray into the hotel business. Songy, which gutted the building to its skin, initially planned on putting Marriott’s Springhill Suites flag on the property, and carving out some apartment space which would fly the ExecuStay flag and be leased out to Marriott. That changed after the developer teamed up with Crestline Hotels & Resorts to manage the property. “Once Crestline got involved they thought we were leaving a lot on the table, and they suggested we go with Residence Inn,” which is also a Marriott flag, said Patton. The developer wanted to take advantage of the fact that the hotel is in an “artsy area;” by giving it a boutique feel, since it sits catty-corner from the city’s High Museum of Art. So, moving slightly away from Marriott’s brand standards for the flag, Songy furnished the hotel’s suites with black appliances and granite countertops. It constructed an exposed brick wall in the lobby, where it hung some carefully selected, well-priced artwork, and laid in dark wooden floors in the public space. The hotel’s seventh floor, meanwhile, boasts 13-foot, vaulted ceilings. All told, Songy paid approximately $8.2 million for the original asset, and has invested a total of $20 million into the property, including the purchase price. Patton reports the property is doing well, and notes that Songy may well team up with Crestline to do another hotel in Dallas; it is currently doing due diligence on a property it would again convert to a hotel. “Conversions are our expertise,” said Patton, who notes the developer has done that in the past with office space as well. “We like C and B buildings in A locations,” he told HOTEL BUSINESS®.