Amy Thompson West, director of marketing for Tocci Building Corp. of Woburn, MA, tells GlobeSt.com that the four-story hotels will replace the existing 118-room Sheraton Lexington Inn along Marrett Road. Next year, Starwood will deliver the 78,000-sf, 123-room "element" and a 66,000-sf, 136-room "aloft" hotel, which targets guests in their 20s and 30s. The cost of the new hotels, featuring a wide range of upscale amenities, is not being disclosed.

"Neither hotel exists today. There are none in the country," says Thompson West. The White Plains, NY-based Starwood's "element" brand will be the first in the country when it opens in Lexington, but the "aloft" will be among several that will open by 2008, she says.