Hotel Elkhart Named Top Restoration Project in Indiana

PRESIDENT AND CEO, CORNERSTONE HOSPITALITY LLC,  selected one of the most influential and powerful business leaders in Virginia’s hospitality sector.

Although Cornerstone Hospitality manages branded hotels, the company is probably best known for its work developing distinctive boutique hotels designed with décor reflecting the history and culture of the regions where the properties are located.

Boutique Hotel Biz Advantage- Kimberly Christner, CEO of Cornerstone Hospitality talks to Glenn Haussman and Anthony Melchiorri on No Vacancy Live

Music imagery and history oozes from every sparkling pore of The Sessions Hotel.

Music imagery and history oozes from every sparkling pore of The Sessions Hotel.

Kimberly Christner has become a driving force in Virginia’s boutique hotel industry, a field that combines two of her passions — restoring historic buildings and helping the economies of small communities.

PIPELINE OF NEW HOTEL PROPERTIES EXPECTED TO MAKE VIRGINIA MORE COMPETITIVE

“It doesn’t feel like we’re in Norfolk anymore,” Dana Jo Decker remarked to friends while standing in line recently to check in at The Main, Virginia’s newest luxury hotel and conference center. “It feels like we’ve been transplanted somewhere else.”

ST. PAUL, Va. — The squeals of power saws slicing lumber fill the air near the intersection of Fourth and Russell streets in downtown St. Paul, much as they have for the past nine months.

Travis Milton, a chef out to preserve and push forward the culinary traditions of Appalachia, will open the first of his three restaurants in the region this summer. Meals at this meat and three, which is a stone's throw from his hometown, will remain casual. Stay tuned for his more elevated Shovel and Pick in a year.

Lynchburg City Council, members of the Lynchburg Economic Development Authority and other city officials got a glimpse into the long-running renovation of The Virginian hotel Tuesday afternoon.

Construction on a new boutique hotel in downtown Bristol could begin soon. The Virginia-based developers, Creative Boutique Hotels, told us they've bought two of the properties they'll use for The Sessions Hotel. They purchased the old Owen Equipment Company building and Jobbers Candy Company building.

They still have to close the deals for the old Simply Grand Flour mill building and the KSS Instructional Aid store. We're told those purchases should be finalized by the beginning of next week.

The numbers paint a rosy picture for developers and owners who want to dip their toes in the boutique, lifestyle, and soft brand segments. Collectively, these arenas are an $11.5 billion industry and growing, according to a report by The Highland Group.

Demand has increased for boutique, lifestyle, and soft brand hotels over the past six years, clearly since the recession, says Kim Bardoul, a consultant with the Atlanta-based hotel consultancy group and co-author of the 2015 report. For example, with lifestyle properties 300 rooms and under, demand grew at an annual average pace of nearly 20 percent from 2009 through 2014—far above the rate of overall U.S. hotel demand growth of 4.2 percent, the report shows.

BRISTOL, Va. — Turning historic parts of a city’s skyline into luxury accommodations is old hat for a Roanoke-based group looking to roll out a welcome mat on State Street in the form of a 70-unit hotel complete with rooftop bar and music performance pavilion.

Creative Boutique Hotels recently took an old shoe factory in Lynchburg and crafted 44 rooms, two restaurants and a brewery. On Wednesday, company officials announced plans to begin work next month on transforming the former Jobbers Candy Co. factory, Owen Equipment Co. building and Simply Ground Flour Mill into The Sessions Hotel.