Mike Reschke will soon bear the fruits of his labor as the revamped former Conrad Hotel in River North prepares to open.
The 289-key Marriott Residence Inn, at 101 East Erie Street, will open April 30, concluding a renovation spearheaded by Reschke’s Prime Group and Wanxiang America Real Estate Group, Crain’s reported.
The opening of the Marriott hotel, which is also set to include two restaurants and a rooftop bar, comes four years after the Conrad Hotel shuttered. Reschke called the project a “major redo.”
“We are taking a five-star hotel and converting it to a luxury extended-stay product,” Reschke told the outlet. “It’s going to be a very high-end Residence Inn.”
The renovations include the addition of a “yacht-style” kitchen in every room, a complete overhaul of the first-floor restaurant and new furniture throughout the hotel.
Food and beverage offerings, overseen by Roanoke Hospitality, will comprise Mediterranean-style restaurant 101 Patio Bar and Grill on the ground floor, an American restaurant with an adjacent jazz bar on the 20th floor and a 25-seat rooftop bar offering skyline views.
Chicago’s lodging industry bounced back in 2023 after a few brutal years following the pandemic, which caused downtown foot-traffic and leisure travel to plummet. In the third quarter of last year, Chicago’s hotel occupancy rate reached 75 percent, the highest figure since the pandemic hit. There’s still ground to make up, though, as the city’s hotel occupancy stood at 85 percent just before the public health crisis.
Reschke, who’s part of the city’s in-motion subsidized office-to-resi push, is bullish on downtown Chicago’s continued recovery.
“The Chicago hotel market is one of the best in the country right now,” he said. “The convention calendar this year is very strong. Of course we’ve got the DNC that’s filling up in August. This should be a really good year, and the future looks bright.”
—Quinn Donoghue