SAN FRANCISCO—Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has announced a new partnership with Philadelphia-based PMC Property Group to convert one of the most iconic and historically significant properties in Winston-Salem, N.C.—the R.J. Reynolds Building—into the city’s first 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’s main lobby level features 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 hotel fitness center, and more than 6,375 square feet 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 Kimpton Chief Executive Officer and President Mike Depatie. “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. This is the second venture in two years for Kimpton together with developer PMC Property Group, with whom they have partnered to build the Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh slated for a fall 2014 opening.
“Kimpton has an excellent track record in adapting historic buildings into unique boutique hotel properties, and as we learned through our work together on the upcoming Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh, we believe we will produce a new and dynamic destination in downtown Winston-Salem,” said PMC Property Group President Ron Caplan.
