Starwood Hotels & Resorts continues to expand its portfolio in North America, where the hotel company will surpass the 600^th hotel milestone in the next two months.

“North America remains one of Starwood’s most important global markets accounting for approximately 50 percent of our global portfolio and a third of our hotel openings in 2014, and we expect strong growth trends to continue this year,” said Simon Turner, president of global development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. “The ongoing economic recovery and increased availability of financing are creating favorable conditions, contributing to strong growth across all three segments of our business and a notable surge in demand for new-build hotels, which comprised 81 percent of our North America signings in 2014.”

Starwood’s large portfolio of upper-upscale hotels under its Sheraton, Westin and Le Méridien brands will continue to grow in North America, where the hotel company signed deals to open nine new properties in the region in the next three years. Following last year’s openings in Charlotte, Indianapolis, New Orleans and the greater Chicago area, Starwood’s Le Méridien brand will debut in Columbus this year. Westin Hotels will reach its 125^th hotel milestone in North America this year, with openings in Jekyll Island, Ga; Austin, Texas; Denver, Colo.; and San José, Calif. Sheraton Hotels will add four new hotels to its North American portfolio.

In the luxury segment, Starwood’s St. Regis brand will unveil the renovation of its iconic St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort later this year and its Luxury Collection brand will open three properties. W will debut hotel renovations in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Montréal, Seattle, San Francisco, South Beach and Times Square in New York City.