PHOTO: South Carolina's Inn at Palmetto Bluff will undergo a $100 million expansion as part of its change in operators.

Montage Hotels & Resorts has added its first East Coast hotel, The Inn at Palmetto Bluff, in Bluffton, S.C. The property will be renamed The Inn at Palmetto Bluff, a Montage Resort, on Feb.1 and build a new five-star hotel on the property.

Crescent Communities, a real estate and development company, will spend more than $100 million to expand the resort.

The expansion will add a hotel with 150 luxury rooms to the property’s 50 cottages. A new spa and fitness center will be added and dining facilities expanded.

The resort was recently tied for first as the best hotel and resort in the U.S. in the Conde Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards. It shares the honors this year with Cincinnati's 21C Museum Hotel. 

AMResorts Unveils Its Winter GREATaways Promotion

AMResorts kicked off its annual Winter GREATaways promotion for travel agents and their clients. The promotion is in effect for the company’s Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts and Secrets, Breathless, Dreams, Now or Sunscape Resorts & Spas.

Agents will find savings of up to 40 percent off clients’ stays; and coupons of up to $400 toward wine, dining and spa treatments. The booking window is Dec. 19 to Feb. 25, with a travel window from Jan. 4 to April 18.

Agents who register their qualifying bookings on AMRAgents.com will be entered into a drawing for a seven-night, air-inclusive AMResorts’ stay for two. Agents will also receive $25 bonus commission with every booking of three nights or more. When agents book select properties, they will earn $50 bonus cash. Those properties include Zoëtry Agua Punta Cana, Secrets Aura Cozumel, Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa, Dreams Villamagna Nuevo Vallarta, Dreams Los Cabos Suites Golf Resort & Spa and Sunscape Curacao Resort, Spa & Casino.

Starwood to Open Element in Fargo, N.D.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts will debut a 130-room Element hotel in Fargo, N.D. It is expected to open in November 2015.

It will be located across the street from the new Sanford Fargo Medical Center now under development and near Microsoft Corporation’s second-largest campus in North America.

The property will comprise studios and one-bedroom suites, which include kitchens, modular furniture, swiveling flat-screen televisions, desks with open shelving and custom-designed closets. It will also feature a 453-squar-foot meeting room.

It will boast complimentary breakfasts.

All Element properties pursue the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for high-performance buildings.