WINSTON-SALEM, NC—Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has formed a new partnership with Philadelphia-based PMC Property Group to convert the R.J. Reynolds Building located here into a luxury boutique hotel, which will occupy the first six floors of the building.
PMC will be the developer of the mixed-use property which will include the hotel, meeting and function space, a lobby bar, restaurant, and luxury rental residential housing on the upper floors.
Built in 1929 and considered one of the country’s first examples of Art Deco architecture, the R.J. Reynolds Building was designed by Shreve & Lamb, the same architects who went on to design the Empire State Building.
The building features a main lobby level with ornate murals, gold leaf gilded millwork in the ceilings and interior nickel and brass elevator doors throughout. PMC plans to embrace the original design and the location and adapt the office building into a mixed-use boutique hotel and luxury rental housing with a projected opening in 2015. The building was the longtime headquarters for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which has been vacant since 2009.
Kimpton will open the new boutique hotel with 175 rooms, 36 suites, a fitness center and more than 6,375 sq. ft. of event and meeting space, including two ballrooms and several meeting rooms on the mezzanine level. The development will also feature a 120-seat restaurant and bar.
“The R.J. Reynolds Building is one of the most historically significant and architecturally interesting buildings in the country, and we are honored to be able to play a role in adapting it into an exciting new hotel for the city, while preserving its important history and character that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company has taken such great care to maintain,” said Mike Depatie, CEO and president of Kimpton. “It’s also exciting for us to be expanding our footprint in the Southeast, bringing the Kimpton sense of style and fun to a new market of travelers and Winston-Salem locals.”
While this is Kimpton’s first hotel in North Carolina, the new Winston-Salem hotel will broaden the San Francisco-based hotel brand’s presence in the Southeast. In addition to this property, Kimpton recently opened The Brice in Savannah, GA and also operates three popular hotels in Miami, including the Epic Hotel, the Surfcomber, The Angler’s Hotel and an additional property on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa.