It's official: we don't know all of Greenfire's plans for their wide array of downtown Durham property... but the Hill building (AKA the SunTrust building, aka the old CCB tower) is officially becoming a 110-room boutique hotel complete with a spa, with condos and a restaurant to boot.  Work begins this fall, most of the SunTrust staff having already moved over to space in Capitol Broadcasting's Diamond View I building next to the Bulls park, and is expected to be complete in 2009.

No press release yet from the folks at Greenfire, so I'm completely cribbing off the N&O's late-morning update on the subject at this point (posted here).  As the N&O notes, Greenfire is planning an office tower next door on the site of the vacant lot and old Woolworth building at Main & Corcoran.  And as Greenfire head Michael Lemanski notes, the opening of the new performing arts center downtown is one driver of the readiness for a boutique hotel.

Unlike the last boutique hotel promised for Durham's core (hey, anyone want a Residence Inn by Marriott in Brightleaf?), the development partner for this effort is Lifestyle Hospitality LLC, a newly-formed Connecticut-based firm led by a former exec with the Kimpton and W Hotels organizations.  Lifestyle Hospitality's target market is blending the 4-diamond hotel concept with the "spa experience," with a focus on high-growth secondary markets, including Charleston, Providence, Sarasota, Savannah and Chattanooga besides Durham.  Price points for the concept are projected to be between a Marriott/Sheraton-style business hotel and a Four Seasons-style luxe product.  (This article from a web site called Hotel Interactive has this information and more details, including some brief discussion of doing this sort of work in historic buildings.)

More details as they become available.