Property Georgia EXCLUSIVE
The 8th Marriott hotel in Georgia is being built by the Alliance Group. The company’s co-founder and Director General, Akaki Songulia, has told Property Georgia that the first 12 floors of the 54-storey Alliance Privilege skyscraper will be occupied by Marriott, while the upper floors will be taken up by exclusive apartments.
“The Alliance Privilege multifunctional complex will stand out through its exclusive architecture which is characteristic of the Alliance Group,” stated Mr. Songulia. The contract between the leading Georgian construction and development company Alliance Group and the leading global hotel network Marriott International was signed on 8 February 2018 in Zurich. This is the second franchise agreement signed by the Alliance Group with Marriott International.
“We will be stepping up the pace of our cooperation with Marriott International. Our first joint project, which involves the opening of a Courtyard by Marriott Hotel inside the Alliance Palace multifunctional complex, has been very successful,” stated Mr. Songulia, adding that 95% of the apartments in the Alliance Palace have already been sold. Construction of the Alliance Palace in Batumi will be completed in 2018, while the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel inside the multifunctional complex is due to begin operating in April 2019.
Georgia has been a successful market for Marriott in terms of brand development, as evidenced by the list of projects implemented under the name of the leading international hotel network: Tbilisi Marriott; Courtyard by Marriott Tbilisi; the Sololaki Hotel and Freedom Square Hotel (both being built under the Autograph Collection banner as part of the Panorama Tbilisi project); the high-end Marriott resort in Shekvetili operating under the Paragraph name; Moxy Tbilisi; and the ultramodern Courtyard Marriott in Batumi. Marriott International operates more than 6000 hotels in more than 120 countries across the world.
The Director General of the Alliance Group states that the Alliance Privilege multifunctional complex, which will be located on the seaside in the Batumi Boulevard, will be a successful project not only for the company and the apartment owners, but also for the city of Batumi and the country as a whole. “We are not simply constructing buildings. We are building a business. This is our company’s business, as much as it is the business of our individual investors – the apartment owners, who are renting out their properties with the aid of our international management company. It is also a tourist business, as we create premium-class properties for visitors to stay. Tourists arrive here in ever-growing numbers and are spending money in Georgia, so it is also a business for our country,” Mr. Songulia explains.
The construction of Alliance Privilege in Batumi is due to be completed in 2020. The 160-room Marriott Hotel is due to begin operating inside the multifunctional complex in 2021. The new hotel will be operated by the American management company McInerney Hospitality International. The Alliance Group is due to invest $80 million in the project.
The Alliance Group is currently working on four construction projects involving the world’s largest hotel networks: the Alliance Palace in Batumi, which will house the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel; Alliance Privilege in Batumi, which will include the Marriott Hotel; the Alliance Resort in Goderdzi, which will house the Ramada Hotel; and Alliance Highline in Tbilisi, which will include the Wyndham Garden Hotel.
Over the last 12 years, the Alliance Group has already invested $200 million in premium-class construction projects. The development company is investing a further $210 million into the four ongoing innovative projects.
