Yay, downtown Sacramento gets a Kimpton Hotel. What’s a Kimpton?
Yay, downtown Sacramento gets a Kimpton Hotel. What’s a Kimpton?
It’s big news in the hotel industry that downtown Sacramento is getting a boutique property with the Kimpton Hotels brand. But outside of the hotel industry, few folks know the name.
There are no hotels called Kimpton. The San Francisco-based chain operates its boutique hotels under mostly unique local names. In San Francisco, those include Hotel Palomar, the Argonaut Hotel, Hotel Tomo and The Tuscan.
Another high-profile Kimpton property is the Sir Francis Drake on Union Square, which features doormen in traditional British Beefeater garb.
The company has not decided what to call the Sacramento hotel, said Aimee Grove, a spokeswoman for Kimpton Hotels. She said it will likely be a “unique brand to the Sacramento area. However in terms of the name specifically, there is nothing confirmed.”
The announcement of the brand came Monday. The Sacramento Kings and JMA VenturesLLC are developing a 250-room hotel in part of a 16-story mixed building near the new downtown arena. The project also includes condos and retail space.
“Kimpton is a hip, lifestyle hotel. It is attracting the millennials,” said Alan Reay, president ofAtlas Hospitality Group. “It is a good choice for the next 15 to 20 years.”
The Kimpton choice signals the developers aren’t looking for a standard big downtown corporate hotel, such as a Marriott or Hilton, Reay said. The new hotel will provide additional appeal to the leisure market, which is one of Kimpton’s strong suits, he added.
That goes against the traditional dynamics of the Sacramento market. Hotels here tend to be busiest during the week, often running very high occupancy Monday through Thursdays, but are often only half-full on weekends.
