They also wanted to sell the 900-car public garage at Marina City and the retail space below it, 115,000 square feet to be exact. Tenants of the commercial property included 10pin Bowling Lounge, Crunch Fitness, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and two restaurants – BIN 36 and Smith & Wollensky. House of Blues would keep the nightclub.
Secured Capital Corporation was hired to market the hotel and adjacent commercial property. In early 2006, they sold it to LaSalle Hotel Properties, a real estate investment trust based in Bethesda, Maryland, for $114.5 million. The announcement was made on February 22, 2006.
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Following a $17 million renovation, the hotel was renamed Hotel Sax Chicago – in deference to the city’s musical traditions, according to the hotel operator, Gemstone Hotels & Resorts International LLC, which took over from Loews Hotels on March 2, 2006.
(Left) A new sign for Hotel Sax is installed on the morning of July 2, 2007. The moment was captured by Adam Kaplan, Director of Marketing for Hotel Sax. |
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Hotel Sax would continue its strategic partnership of cross-promotion with House of Blues, which by this time was owned by Live Nation.
(Left) Hotel Sax from the northeast on May 26, 2010. |
Gemstone principal Mark van Hartesvelt noted that HOB had not, as it turned out, made much effort to create a brand of hotels beyond just the one in Chicago. “We wanted to re-launch and reposition the property,” he told the Chicago Tribune in February 2007.
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van Hartesvelt (left) said he was concerned about dropping a well-known brand name, “but our affiliation with the club is so strong, and we’re packaging so well together, that I hope we’ll be fine.”
In addition to Hotel Sax, Gemstone managed 20 hotels and resorts in the United States, including the Carlton Hotel in New York. |
Mario Mazzini, who was previously general manager of Le Meridien in Chicago (now known as The Gwen), was hired as general manager of Hotel Sax.
Renovation was completed in June 2007. On August 16, 2007, Chicago Tribune’s Glenn Jeffers described Hotel Sax as “a stylish, urban-chic hotel in one of Chicago’s most envious locations.”
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(Left) Dino Soldo in a frame from his 2009 music video titled “Clarinet.” The video was shot in a hotel suite at Hotel Sax to promote a new CD called “The Hotel Suites.” “When trying to do things on the road,” said Dino, who also played keyboard and wind instruments for Leonard Cohen, “sometimes the best location is where you’re standing.” |
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