Spa Places in the News

Ross Bridge Resort and Spa on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail will open in the Birmingham, Alabama in May 2005

Birmingham, AL--Ross Bridge Resort and Spa on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail will open in the Birmingham, Alabama, suburb of Hoover in May 2005. It will be the first resort in the Birmingham area and one of six PCH Hotel & Resort Inc. properties in Alabama.

“This resort will become a hospitality landmark for the Birmingham area,” says Steve Miller, general manager of Ross Bridge. “We will ensure that each guest experience exceeds the stunning atmosphere that will surround us with this beautiful hotel property. Our purpose is to provide a resort experience unparalleled to any in the area.”

Construction began on the 20-acre property in the summer of 2003. The resort will offer 258 luxurious guest rooms that will include 11 suites and a private concierge floor. An indoor pool and an outdoor theme pool with a water slide and waterfalls are also being built.

Ross Bridge will also offer 20,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor function space, a 12,000-square-foot full-service European spa and an 18-hole, 8,100-yard Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail course, which is being developed for tournament play. The golf course club house and pro shop will be inside the hotel.

Ross Bridge, which will employ 250 people, is slated to open to business and leisure travelers in May 2005 and will hold its first large corporate meetings starting in June 2005. “We have a number of corporate meetings on the books for 2005,” says Ross Bridge Director of Sales and Marketing Joe Saling. The golf course, which is being built on 310 acres, will also open in May 2005.

“This hotel is being created to AAA Four Diamond standards,” says Miller. “If you like the Fairmont Banff Springs Resort in Canada, the Greenbrier in West Virginia, the Inn at Biltmore in North Carolina or the Cloisters in Georgia, you’re going to love Ross Bridge. We expect this hotel to attract corporate and association meetings and individual guests from Birmingham and throughout the Southeast.”

Flexible Indoor and Outdoor Meeting Space

The 20,000 square feet of meeting space at Ross Bridge includes a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and five meeting rooms. The ballroom can break out into eight separate meeting spaces. The meeting space will be equipped with T-1 lines, Wi-Fi, plasma screens and other technical amenities to make meetings as efficient and productive as possible. A landscaped terrace will also be available for social and business events.

The Spa at Ross Bridge

The 12,000-square-foot full-service European spa will include 10 treatment rooms, two quiet rooms (one for men and one for women), a fitness room, an aerobics studio and a hair salon. Memberships will be available to anyone wishing to use the spa and fitness facilities.

The Ross Bridge Dining Experience

Ross Bridge will offer a lobby bar and restaurants ranging from a sophisticated and elegant dining room (offering breakfast, lunch and dinner) with a display kitchen and circular wine room, to a cool and casual indoor/outdoor club house sports bar (offering breakfast, lunch and drinks) for golfers. Food and beverage service, as well as room service, will be available throughout the resort.

For information and reservations for Ross Bridge visit www.rossbridgeresort.com, www.rtjgolf.com or call 866-471-7677.

Ross Bridge Resort and Spa on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Hoover, Alabama; The Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa in Point Clear, Alabama; The Legends at Capitol Hill in Prattville, Alabama; The Lodge and Conference Center at Grand National in Opelika, Alabama; The Shoals Hotel, Conference Center & Spa on The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Florence, Alabama (opening May 2005); and The Battle House Hotel in Mobile, Alabama, (re-opening fall 2005) are subsidiaries of PCH Hotels & Resorts Inc. PCH is funded by the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) which also has investments in Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, US Airways, Raycom Media, 55 Water Street in New York City, Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. and other interests.