At this point it's demo of newer tenant build-outs (drywall partitions, drop ceilings, etc.) to expose the historic fabric that's left for documentation.

Details emerge on potential $12 million hotel conversion of historic downtown building

By Tom Demeropolis  – Senior Staff Reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

Sep 18, 2018, 1:29pm EDT Updated 2 hours ago

 

SREE Hotels, the hotel owner and management company that purchased the Ingalls Building in downtown Cincinnati in June, is planning to convert the historic building into a hotel.

 

SREE Hotels plans to remodel the office building at 6 E. Fourth St. into an approximately 140-room hotel, according to city documents. The remodel project, which is expected to be LEED Silver or higher, has a total cost of about $12 million.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/09/18/details-emerge-on-potential-12-million-hotel.html

Construction is now underway.  A new stairway is being added as part of the hotel conversion.

It will be great to see this building finally put back into use.   But I am bummed it will be yet another Hotel.  With its narrow profile, I always though it would have make for a great condo building.

Condos are too hard to finance anymore due to pre-sale requirements.  Hard to sell condos when you can't give any promises as to when someone can move in.  Seems to be the primary reason why nearly all multi-family developments are going rental versus for sale.

Edited July 11, 20195 yr by thesenator
spelling correction

5 minutes ago, JoeHarmon said:

It will be great to see this building finally put back into use.   But I am bummed it will be yet another Hotel.  With its narrow profile, I always though it would have make for a great condo building.

 

There's an awful lot of space in the 1st and 2nd floors to program, which is easier to fill up with a hotel (lobby, dining, bar, communal work areas, lounge, etc.) as compared to a condo.  The 2nd floor is the signature interior space in the building, and since it was an open-plan bank originally, cutting it up into more condo units would threaten historic tax credits.  Also the lack of on-site parking isn't as big a deal for a hotel, where they can just valet everyone. 

^Cool to hear about the 2nd floor. Will be fun to see how they re-purpose that space. One nice aspect of the Ingalls becoming a hotel (as opposed to condos/apartments) is that it makes it more likely for the public to enjoy the common spaces. I've been to a few weddings at the Renaissance Hotel (corner of 4th and Walnut) and enjoyed the details of the old bank.  

I am also a bit worried about so many historic buildings being converted to hotels. I think there is probably enough demand that they will be fine for now, but once 3CDC builds a new mega-hotel by the convention center, some of the smaller boutique ones might struggle. But selfishly, I don't really care as long as they are able to get the needed investment to rehab and save these historic buildings. If the hotel itself goes about of business in a decade, at least we'll have a preserved historic building that we can convert to apartments or some other use.

I'd rather see them converted to apartments.  Easier to convert apartments to Condos one day.     But really I just want the Brueggers back on the first floor.

I'm good with the hotels! I think these developers know where the market is at and what other plans are there for it, so I am sure they will remain solvent. Plus it seems hotels bring a bit more life to the streets

These new hotel conversions are all very small compared to a typical new-construction convention hotel, which often has 500+ rooms.  The Opryland Hotel has 2,882 rooms.  Most of these boutique hotels have 90-150.  

Yeah, I was going to say, isn't Cincinnati under-hotel-roomed?  I thought I read that in an article a while back.

^Big time. Still.

On 7/11/2019 at 11:09 AM, JoeHarmon said:

But I am bummed it will be yet another Hotel.

 

It's definitely not the coolest use for the building, but it will still add life to that area of downtown. Should be pretty full most of the time and care was taken to put lively, public-use areas along the street. I personally wish more hotel developers were willing to take on the role of landlord and have better ground-floor programming like a co-working space, Holtman's Donuts, Coffee Emporium, etc. 

 

On 7/11/2019 at 2:59 PM, jmecklenborg said:

These new hotel conversions are all very small compared to a typical new-construction convention hotel, which often has 500+ rooms.  The Opryland Hotel has 2,882 rooms.  Most of these boutique hotels have 90-150.  

Ingalls will have 126 keys. But I'm of the opinion that it's a much more sustainable model to have multiple, smaller hotels rather than putting all the eggs in one basket. And it has the added bonus of restoring historic buildings, like others have mentioned. I'd much rather see all the beautiful, vacant buildings be filled up and restored before I see more new construction happen. 

 

On 7/11/2019 at 3:12 PM, ColDayMan said:

Yeah, I was going to say, isn't Cincinnati under-hotel-roomed?  I thought I read that in an article a while back.

If I'm not mistaken, the supply wasn't enough for demand a couple years back, but it's catching up now. My guess is it levels out when all the new hotel projects are completed in the next year or two (Ingalls, Lytle Park, Moxy at Main & 3rd, Traction, Towneplace at 7th & Race, etc).

Does anyone know what brand this Ingalls Hotel will be??

17 hours ago, 646empire said:

Does anyone know what brand this Ingalls Hotel will be??

The brand is Marriott. I don't believe the flag is public knowledge yet, but it's pretty irrelevant to the design. The way the spaces lay out, it's impossible to follow their prototype, so it's all custom. 

The Ingalls Building will be a Courtyard by Marriott brand. 

1 hour ago, savadams13 said:

The Ingalls Building will be a Courtyard by Marriott brand. 

Disappointing. Was really hoping for a more high end hotel, as Cincinnati really only has the 21c (I guess you could count the Renaissance or the Cincinnatian possibly). Would love to see something like a JW Marriott, W, Ritz Carlton, Ace, Fairmont, or InterContinental... Some of which can be found in similar sized cities like CLE (Ritz Carleton), Indy (JW), and Pittsburgh (Ace and Fairmont). Sure, a midlevel hotel like Courtyard will be lucrative and get plenty of business, but would love the prestige that comes with having an internationally known luxury hotel. 

12 minutes ago, 513to424 said:

Disappointing. Was really hoping for a more high end hotel, as Cincinnati really only has the 21c (I guess you could count the Renaissance or the Cincinnatian possibly). Would love to see something like a JW Marriott, W, Ritz Carlton, Ace, Fairmont, or InterContinental... Some of which can be found in similar sized cities like CLE (Ritz Carleton), Indy (JW), and Pittsburgh (Ace and Fairmont). Sure, a midlevel hotel like Courtyard will be lucrative and get plenty of business, but would love the prestige that comes with having an internationally known luxury hotel.

 

Like I said in my above comment, it's all custom. The prototype wasn't followed so it won't look like a Courtyard. Just reserve judgement until you go see the completed project in person. 

But yeah, I agree with the sentiment. Boo Courtyard and their tepid, suburban, "business traveler" brand. 

Ingalls building is going to be a relatively small hotel as well once you factor in the space for elevator bays/stairwells/hallways etc.. could have something to do with what brand would be profitable? Just speculating.

 

I am hoping an inter-continental/JW/Loew's for the convention center hotel if/when that happens.

Ingalls is a 100 room Marriott Courtyard.

5 hours ago, wjh2 said:

Ingalls building is going to be a relatively small hotel as well once you factor in the space for elevator bays/stairwells/hallways etc.. could have something to do with what brand would be profitable? Just speculating.

 

I am hoping an inter-continental/JW/Loew's for the convention center hotel if/when that happens.

I see brands for the convention hotel either still being Hilton Signia, Omni, Lowes, or Intercontinental. I find it very hard to believe Sheraton or JW will show up. 

 

On 9/6/2019 at 7:37 PM, thesenator said:

Ingalls is a 100 room Marriott Courtyard.

126. But yeah still on the smaller end. 

9/25/2019

4 hours ago, DEPACincy said:

9/25/2019

Looking good HGC.

See how this downtown office tower will look as a hotel

 

A historical downtown Cincinnati office tower is being converted into a hotel.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/10/08/see-how-this-downtown-office-tower-will-look-as-a.html

 

1/5/20:

 

 

 

Thanks for the pics! Love that building and can't wait to see it be reactivated.

Work is ongoing. Photo from 9 August 2020:

 

Expected completion is March of next year.

On 8/11/2020 at 7:59 PM, thesenator said:

Expected completion is March of next year.

Hopefully we’re able to emerge from the COVID-19 disaster by then. 

Taken 8/24

Video Update of the construction

 

At 5:30 in the video above, he says the lobby of the building was taken over by the city as an easement in 1984. Does anyone know what the city used the lobby for?

2 hours ago, taestell said:

At 5:30 in the video above, he says the lobby of the building was taken over by the city as an easement in 1984. Does anyone know what the city used the lobby for?

 

I think he's just talking about the wedge that was carved out of the southwest corner and converted to sidewalk:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1000425,-84.5126823,3a,75y,81.81h,87.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1su-IIWO-b7PSpSWUgnw-X9Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

I've done some work in downtown buildings and old easements are often bizarre like this. After a few years, there's no one left on either the owner nor city side that knows why these things exist. The skywalk easements are the really fun ones.

OK, that makes sense. It is now being incorporated back into the building as part of the renovation.

World’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper is now a downtown Cincinnati hotel

 

The historic Ingalls Building in downtown Cincinnati is now home to the latest hotel to open in the city.

 

SREE Hotels LLC held its soft opening for Courtyard by Marriott in the Ingalls Building on July 2. Originally built in 1903 as the world’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper, the building at 6 E. Fourth St. underwent a $25 million conversion from office space into a 126-room hotel.

 

The 16-story building, which is LEED gold certified, is owned and managed by SREE Hotels. Vernon Burchett, general manager of Courtyard Cincinnati Downtown, leads the management team for SREE Hotels.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/07/19/ingalls-building-completes-renovation-to-hotel.html

 

13 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

World’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper is now a downtown Cincinnati hotel

 

The historic Ingalls Building in downtown Cincinnati is now home to the latest hotel to open in the city.

 

SREE Hotels LLC held its soft opening for Courtyard by Marriott in the Ingalls Building on July 2. Originally built in 1903 as the world’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper, the building at 6 E. Fourth St. underwent a $25 million conversion from office space into a 126-room hotel.

 

The 16-story building, which is LEED gold certified, is owned and managed by SREE Hotels. Vernon Burchett, general manager of Courtyard Cincinnati Downtown, leads the management team for SREE Hotels.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/07/19/ingalls-building-completes-renovation-to-hotel.html

 

 

Looks great! At a very nice location. Those bi-level 2 King Suites are unique.

Edited July 19, 20213 yr by 646empire