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Tempe aloft hotel under construction
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Visitors walk toward the Aloft hotel, top photo, during a tour of the structure Thursday in Tempe. At bottom, Assistant superintendent Mike Miner shows a room to city employees Michael Martin, right, and DeeDee Kimbrell during a tour inside. The five-story, 136-room Aloft is expected to open in early 2009, the first new hotel built in the city in a decade. Aloft features loft-inspired guest rooms with such signature items as lots of wood decor, platform beds, oversized showers and cutting-edge technology. The hotel's living room-coffeehouse-style lobby by day is designed to become a buzzing bar scene at night. The Tempe site, near Scottsdale Road and Loop 202, is the first of four Valley Aloft hotels slated to open in 2009. A Phoenix hotel at 44th and Washington streets is scheduled to open in March, a Chandler version is pegged for a Sept. 1, 2009, debut and a Glendale hotel is expected to open in June.
Thomas Boggan, Tribune
LOOK AROUND: Assistant superintendent Mike Miner shows a room to city employees Michael Martin, right, and DeeDee Kimbrell during a tour inside Aug. 28, 2008.
Thomas Boggan, Tribune
VIEW: Russ Robb surveys the view from the top of Aloft during a tour of the hotel in Tempe Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008.
Thomas Boggan, Tribune
The five-story, 136-room Tempe aloft is expected to open in early 2009, the first new hotel built in the city in a decade.
Los Angeles-based TriYar is developing the first Arizona version of the upscale, limited-service brand, often dubbed "W light" by tourism industry leaders.
Hotel giant Starwood, which owns the W and aloft brands, said the latter was designed as "a vision of W Hotels."
Aloft features loft-inspired guest rooms with such signature items as lots of wood decor, platform beds, oversized showers and cutting-edge technology.
The hotel's living room-coffeehouse-style lobby by day is designed to become a buzzing bar scene at night.
The first aloft, which Starwood describes as "high design at an affordable price point, accessible technology, style and a social atmosphere," opened in June in Montreal.
A Beijing aloft and three U.S. versions of the hotel have opened since the Montreal launch, and Starwood said it will have 18 alofts open this year and 50 by the end of 2009.
The aloft Tempe is the first of four local versions slated to open in 2009. A Phoenix hotel at 44th and Washington streets, near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, is scheduled to open in March, a Chandler version at Price and Queen Creek roads is pegged for a Sept. 1, 2009 debut. A West Valley version is expected to open in June.
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