Starwood Hotels & Resorts has announced the opening of the Sheraton Hartford South Hotel. Owned by Merced Partners and managed by Wischermann Partners, the former Marriott hotel is undergoing a $6 million renovation and conversion project to meet Sheraton brand standards. The opening is part of the Sheraton brand’s strategic $5 billion expansion effort.

“We are delighted to open our second Sheraton in the bustling Hartford metropolitan area,” said Hoyt Harper, Global Brand Leader, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts.

“Sheraton Hartford South Hotel will offer travelers a stylish and comfortable setting designed to create an atmosphere where guests can make connections and enjoy all the brand’s recently enhanced signature services and amenities.”

Soon after opening, the hotel will implement the Sheraton brand’s signature Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft - a social hub in the lobby where connections, whether face-to-face or webcam-to-webcam take place.

All 251 guest rooms will offer the all-white Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed, designed to meet AAA’s Five Diamond Award criteria, and further renovations will outfit rooms with an oversized work desk, an ergonomic chair, high-speed Internet, LCD flat panel television.

An ideal choice for meetings, weddings and social functions, Sheraton Hartford South Hotel offers 8,600 square feet of flexible meeting space with all the latest in meetings technology. Within a year, the hotel will open a Sheraton Club Lounge, fully renovate the full-service dining and bar areas, and upgrade the existing fitness facility to feature the Sheraton brand’s revolutionary new health and fitness program, Sheraton Fitness programmed by Core Performance, designed exclusively for Sheraton guests through its partner Core Performance.

Located close to downtown off of I-91, Sheraton Hartford South Hotel is just minutes from downtown Hartford and convenient to Bradley International Airport. Also nearby are Dinosaur State Park, the University of Hartford, Connecticut Convention Center and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.