For the past two years, Chicago has been going through amini-boom of new hotels. The city'shotel capacity in 2013 was 34,000 rooms. Nate Sahn, CBRE'shotel practice leader, recently said in Urban Land that he expects that toincrease by 15-20 percent by 2016. While some of thisinventory will come from mixed-use new construction, many of thesenew hotel projects are planned for existing downtown landmarkbuildings, with developers investing in extensive rehabilitationsthat convert historic buildings to be used as boutique or chainhotels while retaining significant historic and architecturalelements.

Some examples of such adaptive reuse projects in downtownChicago include: the Burnham hotel in the old Reliance Building and the mysterious new VirginHotel project to open in the restored Dearborn BankBuilding from 1928. There is also the vintage office buildingat 100 Monroe Street that will house the Hyatt Hotel, which iscurrently undergoing a conversion that will “emphasize Chicago'sarchitectural history and the hotel's branding and marketing willplay up the 22 story Frank D. Chase-designed building'spast”. In the Fulton Market district, the trendy Ace hotelchain is opening in an old industrial building; while the iconicHard RockHotel Chicago has taken over the 40 storybeaux-artsCarbide and Carbon Building at 230 North Michigan Avea block away from the Chicago River.

Redeveloping older buildings – the risks andopportunities