Prime Group adding 234-key canopy hotel atop Loop Marriott

UPDATE, July 2, 10 a.m.: The Prime Group is embarking on a $93 million effort to convert the top five floors of a downtown hotel building from office space into a separate boutique canopy hotel.

“The Reserve” is set to open late next year as a 234-key luxury inn with a penthouse and 3,500-square-foot ballroom on floors 18-22 at 208 South LaSalle Street as part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, Crain’s reported Wednesday.

It would sit atop the JW Marriott Hotel, which already occupies the first 12 stories of the former Continental Bank building. Under Reschke’s plan, floors 13 through 17 will remain offices.

Prime Group CEO Michael Reschke told Crain’s he thinks there’s a “huge market” for a “small, five-star hotel” in the Loop, even in the midst of a recent explosion in new hotel capacity.

About 6,000 hotel rooms came online in Downtown Chicago between 2014 and 2017, and 2,700 more are planned by the end of 2019, according to city tourism officials.

The city’s largest cluster of luxury hotels remains in River North, where Denihan Hospitality sold the 297-key James Hotel for $83 million earlier this month, taking a $54 million loss on the property.

Nearby, investor Hotel Capital recently bought the 122-room Tremont Chicago Hotel for $26 million, and Bixby Bridge Capital refinanced its Kinzie Hotel with a $30.5 million loan. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin

This story has been updated to clarify Prime Group and Reschke’s role in the building.