Hundreds of hotel rooms were lost in the push to transform them to residential use.
Now, the new owners of a downtown Hartford hotel near Union Station plan a $13.6 million redevelopment that would give it a higher profile, a new name and expand the number of its rooms in a city that lost hundreds of rooms in the pandemic, now denting Hartford’s ability to attract conventions and other big events.
The Capitol Hotel on Asylum Street would be converted to a Holiday Inn Express & Suites in a project that could begin as soon as late winter and take four months to compete. The 9-story hotel would be shut down during the conversion.
Springfield-based DVR Ventures, which purchased the 96-room hotel across from Bushnell Park in August, has partnered with Hartford-based Lexington Partners, a prominent downtown Hartford developer, on the project. The redevelopment price tag includes the $6 million paid for the property.
The developers are seeking a low-cost loan of up to $4 million from the Capital Region Development Authority and, if approved, would require the renovated hotel to provide blocks of rooms that could be advertised as available for shows at the Connecticut Convention Center.
Downtown Hartford now has six hotels with about 1,100 guest rooms. Prior to the pandemic, there were eight hotels with more than 1,800 rooms.
Nearly 700 rooms were lost in the partial conversion of the former Hilton Hartford on Trumbull Street into apartments. Two others — the Homewood Suites, also on Asylum, and the Red Lion near Dunkin’ Park — were entirely converted to residential. The conversions followed a dramatic downturn in the hospitality industry during Covid and represented a strategy to circumvent closures
“We have a shortage of hotel rooms in Hartford,” David S. Steuber, CRDA’s executive director, said. “And that is something that does have an impact on our ability to attract conventions to the convention center.”
The project will modestly increase the number rooms to 105, including the conversion of 16 existing rooms to suites. The renovation will include new bathrooms, all new furniture — beds, desks and cabinetry — new tile, carpeting, new doors, ceilings and artwork, according to a proposal disclosed Wednesday by CRDA.
Those upgrades as well as improvements to the breakfast room, fitness center, business center and meeting rooms will meet the standards required by the Holiday Inn Express & Suites brand, the proposal said.
“We’re looking to increase the overall hotel room stock in the city,” Steuber said. “This project will do that modestly but also reinforce the existing stock and raise the quality level of some of the rooms that should hopefully make it more attractive to convention center attendees, which will be good for the visitors the conventions bring into the city to patronize the local economy.”
The regional and economic development committee of CRDA’s board of directors is expected to consider the financing proposal later today. If approved, the proposal must still win the backing of the full board and the State Bond Commission must release the funding.
DVR Ventures, a real estate investment trust, owns and manages hospitality, residential and mixed-use properties on the East Coast. Since the acquisition of the hotel, DVR has been working with Lexington as an equity partner to develop a capital improvement program, tapping into Lexington’s expertise in the local market. The plans included consulting with IHG Hotels & Resorts — headquartered in the Americas in Atlanta and globally in the United Kingdom — to reposition the property into a “recognizable national franchise,” according to the proposal.
“The Capitol Hotel is a key piece of Hartford’s hospitality infrastructure and renovating it to modern standards, it will add much-needed rooms to support the city’s conventions, events and growing downtown activity,” Christopher Reilly, Lexington’s president and chief executive, said, in a text. “We’re asking for CRDA’s partnership to help bring this property back to a standard that will ensure it can once again serve as a vibrant asset for Hartford.”
The hotel — its name drawn from its view of the state Capitol building — had a modest, $750,000 renovation in 2015 when it was rebranded a Red Roof Inn and in 2019 when its brand changed again to the Ascend Hotel Collection Brand, which is part of Choice Hotel International, the proposal stated.
“Shanti Hospitality, a U.K.-based hotel manager and previous owner, was unable to hold its franchise status due to the pandemic’s impact on the hospitality industry,” according to the proposal.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].