First Hospitality Group announced today that a portion of the LeVeque Tower will become a 155 guest room Autograph Collection Hotel, a boutique brand under the Marriott banner. The project is a joint venture with Robert Meyers and Don Casto of Tower Ten LCC, which purchased the building in 2011.
“The Columbus Autograph Collection is a very exciting addition to our ever-growing hotel management portfolio,” said First Hospitality Group President and COO Robert Habeeb in a press release. “Not only is Columbus a great travel market, but this unique project affords us the opportunity to make an impact on the community by applying our adaptive reuse expertise to create a thriving future for this treasured piece of city history.”
Casto and Meyers hired local architectural firm Schooley Caldwell, who have been working on a restoration project at the LeVeque for the past two years. That includes an exterior restoration to terracotta surfaces, and an interior renovation to the lobby, mezzanine floors and bar, restaurant and entertainment spaces. The owners have envisioned an apartment/office/hotel mixed-use for the building, though currently it only has office tenants.
“The LeVeque will be a mixed-use building comprised of 50% office, 25% hotel and 25% refined apartments, offering full-service amenities with concierge including valet parking and access to hotel for services such as in-home dining and housekeeping,” said Sarah Benson Hatcher, Director of Marketing & Public Relations at CASTO. “We are pleased we are entering into a joint-venture with First Hospitality — and look forward to the finished product.”
A more formalized announcement on the new partnership is expected soon, which will coincide with the completion of sidewalk and streetscape improvements on Broad and Front Streets at the base of the building.
First Hospitality Group has completed several similar adaptive reuse hotel conversion projects, including the Loyalty building’s Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Milwaukee, the Liberty Building’s Hyatt Place in Des Moines, and the Federal Building’s Residence Inn in Omaha.
The new hotel is expected to open in early 2015.
For more information on Autograph Collection hotels, visit autograph-hotels.marriott.com.
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