IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed the first Vignette Collection hotel in the United States in McMinnville, Ore. Scheduled to break ground in late 2023 and open in 2025, The Gwendolyn will be along McMinnville’s historic Third Street retail and cultural district in the state’s Willamette Valley wine region.
When it opens, the Gwendolyn will have 92 guestrooms, a restaurant and retail spaces, a rooftop pool with accompanying restaurant and bar, a fitness center and a spa. IHG Hotels & Resorts will oversee the hotel’s development alongside owner Hugh Development—a Portland, Ore.-based real estate development firm—and operator Practice Hospitality.
“As a native Oregonian with family connections to McMinnville, I am honored to bring our team, IHG Hotels & Resorts and our development partners together to bring the first U.S. Vignette Collection hotel to our state," Hugh Development founder and principal Andrew Clarke said in a statement. "The Gwendolyn will complement the historic and charming identity of Third Street while also conveying the brand’s signature elegance and sense of curiosity. We look forward to contributing to McMinnville’s growth while establishing a destination where travelers and the community can gather and engage.”
Vignette Collection hotels are meant to be distinctive from each other with a name reflective of a unique element of its history, character or location. The Gwendolyn was named in tribute to Clarke’s aunt.
The brand’s U.S. debut follows the signing of its first Americas region hotel—the El Gran Encomendero in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula—earlier this year, and previously announced properties across Asia, Europe and Australia following its August 2021 launch. The first Vignette Collection hotels to open include Hotel X Brisbane Fortitude Valley in Australia and Sindhorn Midtown Hotel Bangkok in Thailand. IHG anticipates securing more than 100 new Vignette Collection properties in the next decade.