CHICAGO—Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has purchased an historic building in Chicago’s Central Loop neighborhood for an undisclosed amount. The property will be converted for the first time into a 281-room hotel.
The 14-story building, which was originally constructed in 1894 and currently serves as commercial office space, was acquired through the company’s proprietary KHP III fund. Known as The New York Life Building after the namesake of its original occupant, as well as the LaSalle-Monroe Building, the structure is one of only two existing office buildings in Chicago created by architect William Le Baron Jenney, who played a major role in the development of the city.
Kimpton plans to renovate and refurbish the landmark property on South LaSalle Street in the city’s central business district. Slated for a Q1 2016 opening, the new hotel will feature a destination restaurant and bar on the corner of South LaSalle and West Monroe Streets as well as a Library Bar on the second floor adjacent to the lobby and living room.
The hotel will also house 9,500 sq. ft. of prime retail space on the ground floor. Offering more than 12,500 sq. ft. of meeting and event space on the 14th and 15th floors, the hotel will feature a top floor ballroom with views of LaSalle Street. Working with New York-based architect Gensler, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants’ SVP of Design, Ave Bradley, will be leading the design of the hotel with Los Angeles-based design firm Beleco, always conscious to weave in locally-appropriate touchpoints.
When it opens, the hotel will be Kimpton’s fifth property in Chicago, joining the Hotel Burnham, Hotel Allegro, Hotel Monaco and Hotel Palomar. This will also be the latest in Kimpton’s long history of adaptive reuse hotel projects. Since 1992, the San Francisco-based boutique leader has converted 13 historic buildings into hotels. Kimpton also has four additional historic conversions underway with planned openings within the next two years.
“Chicago has proven to be a consistently successful market for Kimpton, and this new hotel will give us an opportunity to leverage many operational synergies here with our other four hotels,” said Kimpton President and CEO Mike Depatie. “We are excited to expand our footprint in this great city, and bring Kimpton’s unique design and heartfelt approach to hospitality to this historic Chicago building.”