Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook
The Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook is a 100-room luxury hotel which opened in 2015 in the Lane Parke development in Mountain Brook Village. It is the 11th in a chain of hotels operate by the Orlando, Florida-based "Kessler Collection".
Development of the hotel began in 2004 when Alabama Power Company CEO Charles McCrary invited Richard Kessler to tour potential sites in Birmingham for a new luxury hotel. Kessler proposed a 14-story $50 million "Westin Grand Bohemian" on the site of the Birmingham Board of Education Building facing Linn Park downtown. The board voted not to sell the property, and the development was shelved.
In 2012, after the city of Mountain Brook gave final zoning approval to the Daniel Corporation's proposed $120 million redevelopment of the Mountain Brook Shopping Center (1955) and Park Lane Apartments (1942) as Lane Parke, Kessler was contacted again. In short order a deal was struck to build the $35 million hotel as a centerpiece of the development. Robins & Morton broke ground on the $35 million hotel on January 16, 2014 and completed construction in 2015.
The Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook has a rooftop bar and restaurant with an inside dining room with a Porsche automobile theme as well as outdoor terrace seating. 12,630 square feet of meeting rooms are included in the hotel, along with a "Poseiden Spa", an indoor pool, sculpture garden, and a gallery space that displays local and regional artwork and jewelry for sale.
References
- Poe, Ryan (October 4, 2013) "How the Grand Bohemian Hotel ended up in Lane Parke." The Birmingham News
- Tomberlin, Michael (January 16, 2014) "$35 million Grand Bohemian hotel under construction in Mountain Brook." The Birmingham News