Ascent Hospitality secures $50M for hotel development in Brown Marx Tower

Ascent Hospitality—the property management company behind the Elyton Hotel and Fairfield Inn & Suites—recently secured $49.8 million of construction financing from investment firm Peachtree Group. According to Commercial Observer, the funding is meant for the construction of a new, dual-branded AC & Element hotel in the historic Brown Marx Tower in downtown Birmingham.

Read on to learn more about this exciting project.

Redeveloping the Brown Marx Tower

If you’ve passed through downtown Birmingham recently, you’ve likely noticed ongoing work at the Brown Marx Tower, located at the intersection of 20th Street North and 1st Avenue North dubbed the Heaviest Corner on Earth.

Now we know why.

According to a recent report by Commercial Observer, Ascent Hospitality is redeveloping the 117-year-old tower as a dual-branded AC & Element hotel, with a total of 338 rooms for travelers.

• The AC Hotel portion will feature 190 rooms and will be geared toward business-oriented guests.
• The Element Hotel portion will feature 148 rooms and will be designed for short- and long-term stays.

Ascent Hospitality previously redeveloped downtown Birmingham’s Empire Building as the Elyton Hotel, a boutique Marriot Autograph Collection hotel featuring 111 rooms and 6 suites, a ground-level restaurant dubbed The Yard and a rooftop bar, Moon Shine. A few years later, the property management group opened the neighboring Fairfield Inn & Suites right next to the Elyton Hotel.

About the Brown Marx Tower

One of Birmingham’s oldest and largest buildings, the Brown Marx Tower was first completed in 1906. The 16-story, 210-foot-tall building was the tallest tower in Birmingham for three years, until the construction of the Empire Building in 1909. In 1908, the owner of the Brown Marx expanded the footprint of the original building, doubling its size and creating the building we know today.

Fun Fact: The Brown Marx is one of the four towers that make up the Heaviest Corner on Earth, a nickname given to the intersection of 20th Street North and 1st Avenue North. The nickname referred to the rapid construction of the four towers within a relatively short time frame, from 1902 to 1912.

Read more about the history of the Brown Marx in Birmingham.

By the early 2000s, the Brown Marx was vacant and left in disrepair. Although several redevelopments were proposed, no serious progress was made until Ascent Hospitality acquired the property in 2018. Since then, the property management group has been removing debris and unwanted material from the interior to prepare for its eventual redevelopment.

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