AC Hotel Buckhead Breaks Ground

Atlanta, Georgia (January 13, 2015) – Noble Investment Group (“Noble”) today announced they have broken ground on the AC Hotel Buckhead, a joint venture with Simon (NYSE:SPG). Located at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Wieuca Road and adjacent to Nordstrom at Phipps Plaza, the AC Hotel Buckhead will be the brand's first hotel in Atlanta, and is scheduled to open in early 2016.

The AC Hotel Buckhead will offer 166 rooms and suites and a variety of amenities including the AC Lounge, 2,500 square feet of flexible meeting space, the AC Library, health and fitness as well as an indoor pool.

Buckhead is renowned as a live, work and play community with the most affluent zip codes in the region, more than 20 million square feet of office and over 1,400 retail units where shoppers spend more than $1 billion per year. The epicenter of luxury retail in Buckhead is Phipps Plaza which is home to such distinctive names as Valentino, Saks Fifth Avenue and Versace.

"Over more than 20 years, Noble has brought a number of outstanding hotels to our home town of Atlanta and we believe that the AC Hotel Buckhead will be a vibrant and exceptionally popular addition to the city," said Mit Shah, Noble’s chief executive officer.

AC Hotels by Marriott is a highly acclaimed urban lifestyle hotel brand with hotels throughout Spain, Italy, Portugal and France and now entering the United States. The brand boasts a stylish, urban, cosmopolitan design while creating a tailor-made local experience in each market. To find out more about AC Hotels by Marriott, please visit marriott.com/ac-hotels.

About Noble Investment Group

Since 1993, Noble has specialized in making value-add, opportunistic and income investments in upscale select service and extended-stay hotels affiliated with Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and Intercontinental. Through its private equity real estate funds, Noble has invested more than $3 billion in communities throughout the United States, creating thousands of jobs. As a fiduciary to state pensions, university endowments and foundations, Noble’s endeavors help to preserve and grow our limited partners’ capital which provides retirement benefits for millions of our country’s teachers, policemen and firefighters as well as financial resources for students to attend college. For more information, please visit www.nobleinvestment.com.

About Phipps Plaza

Located in Atlanta’s prestigious Buckhead area, Phipps Plaza is the Southeast’s premier upscale shopping destination, and is a Simon mall. Its diverse and exclusive mix of fashion and luxury retail features signature shops for Gucci, Versace, Jeffrey, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Hugo Boss and Bally plus Tiffany and Co., and is anchored by Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Belk. Phipps Plaza also offers popular dining and entertainment experiences including four white-tablecloth restaurants – Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse, The Tavern, Twist, and YEBO Restaurant & Bar – a 14-screen AMC Theatre with luxury recliners in all auditoriums, and LEGOLAND Discovery Center.

About Simon

Simon is a global leader in retail real estate ownership, management and development and a S&P100 company (Simon Property Group, NYSE:SPG). Our industry-leading retail properties and investments across North America, Europe and Asia provide shopping experiences for millions of consumers every day and generate billions in annual retail sales. For more information, visit simon.com.

Elise Barnes