Columbia Sussex - Hotels

Hotels

In 1977 Columbia Sussex purchased their first full service hotel, The President Motor Inn in Fort Wright, KY. The hotel was closed for renovations and re-opened as a Ramada Inn.

Columbia Sussex then began a campaign of acquiring Holiday Inns and renovating them into properties featuring the Holidome concept. Together with the new loyalty program, Priority Club, which was a trailblazing concept at the time, market success followed. Holiday Inns were acquired in Dayton, OH, Springfield, OH, and a group of 4 Holiday Inns in Charleston, WV.

In 1980 Columbia Sussex completed their largest acquisition to date with the purchase of the 400 room Holiday Inn in Southfield, MI.

In the early 80's Columbia Sussex continued to grow mainly through acquisition while focusing primarily on the Holiday Inn brand.

In 1983 a 400 room Holiday Inn was purchased and renovated in Louisville, KY.

In 1984 Columbia Sussex began expanding through construction of new hotels. Major projects included a Holiday Inn Rochester, NY which served as the company's flagship for a few years. Also constructed in 1984 was a 400 room motel in Kissimmee, FL which carried the Best Western Flag. This was the last exterior corridor property ever constructed by the company. Columbia Sussex also opened the newly constructed Hilton Louisville East and purchased the Plymouth, MI Hilton.

In 1985 Columbia Sussex purchased 3 Holiday Inns in the Chicago Area in Glen Ellyn, Itasca and Hillside. 1985 marked the end of the Holiday Inn focus for the company and the beginning of the Radisson Era.

Columbia Sussex became the first franchisee of Radisson hotels with the purchase, renovation and re-branding of the Americana Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport located in Northern, KY. At the time of its opening the Radisson CVG was the 14th hotel with the Radisson brand in the U.S.A..

Development of many new construction hotels followed in the late 80's and early 90's of mostly Radisson branded hotels.

In 1994 Radisson hotels in 5 cities were converted to Marriott. These were the first of many as Columbia Sussex transitioned from the largest Radisson franchisee to the largest full service Marriott Franchisee.

In 2005 Columbia Sussex substantially upgraded their portfolio by acquiring 14 properties from Wyndham Corp for $1.4B while Blackstone simultaneously acquired the remainder of the Wyndham Corp. Shortly thereafter, Blackstone sold the Wyndham brand name to Cendant. Columbia Sussex repositioned these properties into 3 Hiltons, 2 Marriotts, 2 Sheratons and 6 Westins after significant remodeling.

In 2006 Columbia Sussex purchased 2 Hiltons in Arlington, VA and Sacramento, CA from Blackstone in a $150m deal.

2007 marked Columbia Sussex most recent acquisition of the Sanibel Harbour Resort and Spa from Liberty Mutual Insurance for $126m. The property was re-branded as a Marriott in 2009.