The Dow Hotel Co. (DHC), Seattle, announced it has acquired in a joint venture with the Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group’s Carlyle Realty Partners VI, the 269-room Hilton Orrington hotel in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
DHC will operate the hotel, which will undergo an approximately US$6 million renovation over the next 12 months. The improvements will focus primarily on guestrooms, corridors, an upscale lounge and coffee concept as well as meeting and other public space.
Among F&B upgrades will be the opening of Farmhouse Evanston, which will have an entrance off the hotel’s lobby. The restaurant will be a sister eatery to Farmhouse Chicago and will feature 36 craft beers on tap and Midwestern cuisine sourced from local farms.
Located near the campus of Northwestern University, the Hilton Orrington features a 12,000-sq-ft, (1,115-sq-m) International Association of Conference Centers-certified center. The hotel also offers an additional 20,000 sq ft (1,858 sq m) of ballroom and other meeting space capable of serving up to 550 guests. The property includes a 173-space parking garage, business center and retail shops.
“We finally are seeing a substantial number of attractive, quality, full-service properties coming to market and have one of the most active pipelines in our company’s 15-year history,” said Murray Dow, president of the Dow Hotel Co. “We expect the next several years will create strong growth, including acquisitions, joint ventures and third-party management, as well as improved returns from our current 13-hotel portfolio.”