KINGSTON — Sandals Resorts International has partnered with Marriott International to manage a new 220-room AC Hotels by Marriott property in Jamaica’s capital. Construction on the $50 million AC Kingston is now underway and the hotel is scheduled to open in winter 2019.

According to reports, the hotel will include a 10,000 square foot conference centre and dining and retail space.

Travellers are picking up on Kingston’s “renewed energy” and many are making Kingston their starting point before heading to their beach vacation, said Sandals CEO Adam Stewart. Sandals wants to make the new AC Kingston “a destination within a destination”, he said, adding that AC Hotels by Marriott “is the right brand to bring our vision to life.”

AC Hotels’ design DNA is European modernism, with sleek lines and muted colours. According to Marriott, AC Hotels is aimed at “a new kind of traveller – a creative, entrepreneurial and modern global traveller – who prefers to have fewer things, but expects them to be better than good.”

There are now close to 100 AC Hotels properties throughout Europe, North America and Latin America. The new AC Kingston will be the first in the Caribbean.