(Above) Hotel Sax from the northeast on May 26, 2010.

By late 2005, rising hotel occupancies and room rates were luring hotel investors into paying premium prices, and so in October the House of Blues Hotel at Marina City was put up for sale. HOB Entertainment Inc., based in Los Angeles, figured it would get $200,000 per room, or $75 million for the hotel. But wait, there’s more.

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.

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 “king” suite in the hotel.

Hotel Sax would continue its strategic partnership of cross-promotion with House of Blues, which by this time was owned by Live Nation.

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 Chicago Tribune in February 2007.

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 U.S., including the Carlton Hotel in New York.

Mario Mazzini, who was previously general manager of Le Meridien in Chicago (now 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.” (Right) Mazzini at the 2011 grand opening of Ravella at Lake Las Vegas, where he was general manager from January to December of that year.

(Above) New Hotel Sax sign is installed on July 2, 2007. (Below) 2007 photo of employees in front of Hotel Sax.