An article for Hotel Asia Pacific gives an interesting overview of the process of siting and building aloft:
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2189
The downtown Dallas property will be aloft's first... loft! Connie Gore reporting for
GlobeSt:
DALLAS-Hamilton Properties Corp. and SAVA Holdings Ltd., armed with a $68.5-million plan, will bookend the Dallas Convention Center with two hotels, totaling 447 rooms. One will be a boutique independent and the other flagged as an aloft.
The development partners will begin work in September to convert the Santa Fe IV warehouse into a 195-room aloft, believed to be the flag's first adaptive reuse in the nation. The eight-story structure, built in 1926 at 1033 Young St., will be the closest hotel to the convention center. The aloft project's cost will come in just under $40 million, Ted Hamilton, partner in the father-son local company, tells GlobeSt.com...
The Hamiltons plan to open the aloft in late 2008 or early 2009, allowing for a 16-month construction schedule... The Hamiltons and SAVA are buying a two-acre parking lot to provide space for the aloft, which is in the process of being cleared for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The warehouse's railroad tunnel, which is intact, will be retrofitted into 14,000 sf of exhibition space, a perk that Hamilton believes will win convention business. Likewise, the eclectic aloft brand is expected to win favor because the rooms aren't standard convention fare. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. of White Plains uses the flag to play off its "W," incorporating concrete and brick into designs. The Santa Fe IV already has all that. "The building is perfect for it," Ted Hamilton says. A ninth floor will be added to incorporate five penthouse suites, fitness center and rooftop pool into the project.