Marriott International Inc. plans to become a big-time player in Chicago’s building boom as it prepares for at least three major projects, including a multimillion-dollar renovation of the historic Blackstone Hotel.
Joining the Blackstone rehab on the drawing boards are two new hotels to be built on neighboring Cermak Road sites just west of McCormick Place, according to documents filed with the city.
Declared Barbara Lynne, executive director of the Near South Planning Board, “It means we finally have arrived.”
The Marriott Residence Inn and Marriott Courtyard Inn planned for the 100 block of West Cermak, in particular, are “very important to us,” Lynne added. “That is a very visible place. It hasn’t looked good in a long time. We want it to be a real entry into the convention area.”
Marriott officials declined comment on details of the firm’s plans, but the company is under contract to purchase the Blackstone from Maharishi Ayurveda University, the current owner, for roughly $25 million, sources familiar with the deal said.
Assuming city approval, Marriott would spend about $65 million to modernize and restore the one-time grandeur of the tired old hotel. The property would become a Host Marriott in a reincarnation that would place it toward the upper end of Chicago’s lodging market.
“The bad news is that no one has done anything to (the hotel) in the last 70 years,” said Charles Thurow, deputy commissioner in the city’s Planning Department.
Ironically, “one of the good things is that nothing has been done in 70 years,” he added. Distinctive interior features, including the hotel’s opulent grand ballroom, are faded, but still intact, Thurow said.
In a recent evaluation of all buildings in the city based on architectural and historic importance, the Blackstone was the only hotel in the top rank.
Built from 1908 to 1910, it was designed by architect Benjamin Marshall, whose firm also designed the Drake Hotel, the old Edgewater Beach Hotel, South Shore Country Club and luxury apartment buildings on North State Parkway and East Lake Shore Drive.
The 22-story Blackstone, an example of the “Modern French” style of design, also is rich in history. It was in the hotel’s “smoke-filled rooms” where Warren Harding was selected as the compromise Republican candidate for President in 1920.
The Blackstone has hosted Presidents Richard Nixon, John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt through the years.
Among colorful figures who once were permanent residents of the Blackstone are Chicago Mayor William “Big Bill” Thompson and Ald. Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna.
The Daley administration plans to propose landmark status for the hotel at an April 1 City Council meeting. The designation would qualify Marriott for an estimated $13 million in real estate tax breaks over the first 10 years, officials said.
But because of improvements to the property that would bring a higher assessed valuation, local taxing bodies would receive $10 million more than they would if there were no rehabilitation, Thurow said.
Sources said that Marriott wants to begin work on the building later this year, reopening in late 1999.
Local leaders have been told that the sister Marriotts on Cermak will have a total of about 450 rooms.
“With the lack of new (hotels) in the last eight or 10 years, room rates have increased dramatically, giving us an opportunity to build,” said Tim Peters, Marriott area vice president of lodging development.
Rooms in the Cermak properties are expected to be priced from $125 to $135 a day.
Also critical to the financial feasibility of the Cermak ventures are city subsidies from a local tax-increment financing district that would cover “12 or 13 percent” of the development cost, Peters said.
Marriott, which also is working “on a couple of (development) proposals” at Harrison and Wells Streets, sees a strong convention and tourism market in Chicago, according to Peters.
“We have seen quite an increase in tourist traffic in the last couple of years with the renovation of Navy Pier and what they’re doing down around the Adler Planetarium,” he said. “You go in hotels and you see families.”
Chicago also is deeper in cultural attractions, including museums, than such competing destinations as New Orleans, San Antonio and Las Vegas, he said.
The addition of hotels in the area south of the Loop “fuels the need for restaurants and more retail, and that’s what we need,” Lynne said.
Some of the demand will be handled by the impending conversion of the old R.R. Donnelly printing complex on Cermak at Calumet Avenue, just east of the hotel site.
