Westin Grand Bohemian

The Grand Bohemian Hotel is a planned 100-room full-service luxury hotel, the 11th property in a chain operated by the Orlando-based Kessler Collection, which is to be constructed in the Lane Parke development in Mountain Brook Village.

In April 2004, Kessler, having been invited to tour sites in Birmingham by Charles McCrary, proposed a Westin Grand Bohemian on the site of the Birmingham Board of Education Building at the northeast corner of 20th Street and Park Place across the street from Linn Park. Originally proposed as a 14-story, 250 room hotel, Kessler announced the following October that they were ready to invest $50 million to construct a 14-story hotel with approximately 200 rooms on the site. The project would have included at least one restaurant, a lounge, large ballroom, exercise facility and commercial and retail space. The design would have been modeled after the Westin Grand Bohemian in Orlando. The project ultimately stalled and subsequently was canceled after the Birmingham Board of Education decided to not sell the property for the proposed development.

In 2012, Kessler agreed to operate a 100-room Grand Bohemian hotel in the Lane Parke development in Mountain Brook Village. Alabama Power Company CEO Charles McCrary spearheaded efforts to convince Kessler to move forward in the area. Robins & Morton broke ground on the $35 million hotel on January 16, 2014 and construction is expected to be completed in March 2015.

The Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook will have a rooftop bar and restaurant with an inside dining room with a Porsche automobile theme as well as outdoor terrace seating. 12,630 square feet of meeting rooms are planned, along with a "Poseiden Spa", an indoor pool, sculpture garden, and a gallery space that will display local and regional artwork and jewelry for sale.

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• Tomberlin, Michael and Barnett Wright (April 27, 2004) "Hotel chain eyes Linn Park location." The Birmingham News
• Tomberlin, Michael (October 9, 2004) "High-end downtown hotel planned." The Birmingham News
• Leech, Marie and Joseph D. Bryant (December 8, 2007) "Mayor wants schools office leveled." The Birmingham News
• Poe, Ryan (October 4, 2013) "How the Grand Bohemian Hotel ended up in Lane Parke." The Birmingham News
• Tomberlin, Michael (January 16, 2014) "$35 million Grand Bohemian hotel under construction in Mountain Brook." The Birmingham News