A new two-flag hotel is being proposed downtown, directly across the street from Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. This lot featured a different hotel proposal before the market crash. The hotel is being designed by Ratio, across the street from their headquarters. The renderings of the new hotel are included on the IHPC Staff Report, and I’ve included some of them below:
What do you think?
At the end of June, my family and I stayed at the A Loft in downtown Chicago. It was definitely my favorite Starwood hotel. Very hipster and urban and the room layouts were amazing. You walk straight into a long room. The bathroom, instead of being in the little entry/hall thing like most hotels, was actually long and ran parallel to the entire room. More usable space and a very uncramped feel.
Additionally, they had an amazing bakery/club on the ground floor called Beatrix. Basically, mornings it served brunch and in the evening, it turned into a bar with a DJ. Very good use of the space. On both accounts it was the type of place that you would go to, even if you weren’t staying at the hotel. You could definitely ingress/egress directly from the street without entering the hotel itself.
I’m excited we are getting this although it doesn’t help me much since I live here!
The Aloft you stayed at is a bit atypical, particularly with the bakery/club. That said, they definitely are an enjoyable brand in the Starwood portfolio as are the far less common Element properties.
I am excited about having them in the mix for people who come to visit Indy, but hope the owners do a much better job than the other SPF properties in town. Both of the Sheratons are wildly inconsistent. The Westin is a bit better, but not by much.
The proposed building looks about what you might expect from an urban co-branded tower.
Ah, that was my first Aloft experience so I thought it was typical. It was just all around trendy hipster cool, so I figured that was the feel they were going for vs the affordable Sheraton or luxury Westin/W.
I’d like to test out Element at some point as well.
Aloft is a brand I seek out when ever I am traveling. They cater to the younger, hipper traveler. I don’t know how “atypical” the club feature in aloft is as every one that I’ve stayed at (and I have stayed in several across the country) has the lounge-y bar in the lobby, usually with a pool table and sometimes with the DJ.
I should have been more specific that the bakery and serving brunch is atypical in my Aloft experiences (about a dozen different properties). They have always had a pool table, a bar with light snacks, and a lounge space often including music, but this sounded like a more formal operation than the multi-purpose space that seems to be the norm.
Would like to see refinement in materials and hope that brings it to life, but based off the provided renderings it already feels slightly outdated.
Awesome drop off zone
This would be a great addition to the urn=ban landscape downtown.I hope it works out.
I just saw on the IHPC agenda that Ratio Architects have withdrawn their plans. Must mean the hotels are a no-go? Any word?
I haven’t heard anything, but that doesn’t appear to be a good sign.
Has anyone heard anything about this project? Did IHPC successfully kill this economic development?
Obviously not EVERYTHING is better than a parking lot, but I’d argue that almost ANYTHING is better than a parking lot.
I suspect they killed it. What a shame.