BOSTON— Six Continents Hotels has finalized plans to open its first Inter-Continental hotel in the Boston market, with a groundbreaking scheduled for the second quarter of 2002 and a grand opening slated for late 2004. Despite having 28 hotels under the Six Continents umbrella in the Boston area, this property marks the debut of the company’s high-end Inter-Continental chain into the market. The new hotel also represents the brand’s continued plans to expand throughout key North American city centers. “Our goal is to be located in very powerful U.S. and international destinations. In other top markets, we have a presence [like San Francisco, Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York City]… Boston represents another major, robust lodging market,” said Steve Porter, COO/Six Continents. Six Continents will manage the 420-room hotel, which will be owned and developed by Intell Boston Harbor LLC. “Intell has been trying to build a hotel on this site for 10 years, and Inter-Continental has been trying to find a perfect location in Boston for a number of years. It was a good fit,” said Porter. The two companies have been working together on the project for the past three years, and have finally gotten all of the approvals necessary for the waterfront mixed-use property along Atlantic Avenue. Located on the original site of the Boston Tea Party in the city’s financial district, the hotel will feature 20 stories housing 420 guestrooms, 130 luxury condominiums, 30,000 square feet of meeting space including the largest ballroom in the city, a spa/health club, and ground floor retail and restaurant space. “The city desired to have the density of a mixed-use project on the site, and the developers wished to have a continuous income stream in addition to a fixed income stream,” Porter explained. The hotel was designed to offer the contemporary luxury experience associated with the brand, but with additional “elements that look like a waterfront hotel, and other elements that look like a modern hotel but still respect Old Boston architecture,” he added. The inside of the hotel will feature the traditional red brick and cobblestone accents that “pick up the feeling of Boston,” he stated. Despite the current softening of the Boston travel market, Porter said he has no concerns about adding another full-service property to the mix. “The history of Boston is robust. It’s had some of the highest occupancy rates of any market in past several years, and the numbers will come back,” he remarked, adding that the planned new convention center should bring more business to the city and that Six Continents’ other hotels in the city are currently running at “reasonable occupancies.”
Inter-Continental Boston