Oxford Capital Group and Quadrum Global is proposing a $75 million boutique hotel on a long-neglected building on Michigan Avenue.
The Chicago-based developer, along with London-based private equity investment firm Quadrum are converting the old Atlantic Bank Building at 168 North Michigan Avenue into the 218-key Hotel Julian, named for the patron saint of boatmen, innkeepers and travelers, according to Crain’s.
The more than 100-year-old building had been empty for a decade.
Rutledge’s firm bought the property for $20 million in 2015 from developer Musa Tadros, who had planned a Hotel Indigo there before selling.
The property sits along a stretch of Michigan that has seen several historic buildings converted into hotels in recent years. Oxford converted the London Guarantee & Accident Building at 360 North Michigan Avenue into the 452-key LondonHouse, Becker Ventures turned the former Hard Rock Hotel in the Carbide & Carbon Building at 230 North Michigan into the St. Jane Chicago and AJ Capital turned the former Chicago Athletic Association at 12 South Michigan into a hotel.
Oxford is also behind the Essex on the Park apartment tower at 808 South Michigan Avenue, where it’s converting the adjacent Essex Inn into the more upscale Hotel Essex. Oxford and Gettys Group, meanwhile, are facing a foreclosure lawsuit on their 225-key Hotel Felix in River North, which began to struggle after its property taxes ballooned. [Chicago Tribune] — John O’Brien