Jan. 22–After 45 years, the spinning stopped.
The Millennium, the downtown hotel with the rooftop restaurant that went around and around, closes today without a redevelopment plan in sight. But at least the 28-story, cylindrical hotel that opened in 1969 won’t look abandoned.
The owner, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, will maintain some utilities, keep an elevator in operation and won’t board up any windows, said Otis Williams, executive director of the St. Louis Development Corp.
SLDC, the city’s development agency, remains in talks with the hotel’s owner about what it plans to do with the site, at 200 South Fourth Street, Williams said Tuesday.
Whatever plan may emerge, the owner isn’t saying. Robert Rivers, Millennium’s regional general manger, in Boston, said the company’s board “has not formally provided a next step” regarding the St. Louis property.
When announcing in November the hotel’s closure, Millennium Hotels and Resorts said its St. Louis outpost no longer met guests’ needs. The company, based in Greenwood Village, Colo., is the North American arm of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, of London.
Closure of the St. Louis riverfront hotel ended the jobs of its nearly 150 employees.
There was little left to close. All but 164 of the 780 rooms went out of service last spring, when the owner announced it was shutting down most of the hotel for much-needed replacement of mechanical systems. The work never took place, and rumors of a total shutdown circulated last fall before the owner announced Nov. 21 that the hotel would close today.
Williams said city officials were disappointed by the shutdown but were hopeful that suitable redevelopment would take place. He said the city would not try to dictate what Millennium did with the property “as long as the site is fully developed.”
Millennium is “exploring all options” on what to do with the site, Williams added. Real estate experts have said a sensible approach could be to renovate and reopen part of the structure as a hotel and convert the rest to residences.
“It’s a premier spot,” said Missy Kelley, spokeswoman for the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis. “A hotel makes sense, but changing the use also could make sense as long as it adds to the vitality of the Arch grounds and improves connectivity to the city.”
Experts have said the site could become more attractive to redevelopment after the Arch grounds renovation, scheduled for completion next year, improves pedestrian access.
Williams said Millennium officials might provide more information in about two months about what it intended to do with the property.
“They think about the property as being an asset, so they would like to see it redeveloped,” he said.
Longtime St. Louisans may remember the Millennium as Stouffer’s Riverfront. Additions to the original tower produced the city’s largest hotel. The building later carried the Clarion and Regal Riverfront names before the hotel began flying the Millennium flag more than a decade ago. For a time, the hotel’s 10-story south tower operated as a Sheraton Four Points.
Its closure has little effect on the size of downtown’s 8,000-room hotel market.
In December, the underused Mayfair got a new owner, which closed the hotel and began its renovation as a luxury Magnolia Hotel. The 182-room Magnolia is scheduled to open this summer.
Sale of the closed suites portion of the Renaissance Grand Hotel is set to conclude next month. The new owner plans to renovate the 165-room hotel as a Courtyard by Marriott.
