Dec. 17–Veteran hotelier Laurence Geller has closed a deal to turn a 224,000-square-foot Near North office building at 101 E. Erie St. into a luxury hotel.
Geller, former chief of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, has joined with Wanxiang America Real Estate Group, the U.S.-based arm of the Chinese auto parts manufacturer, to develop a 290-room hotel, reportedly under the Conrad hotel brand. It would be the second Conrad hotel within four blocks — there is a Conrad just off Michigan Avenue, at Rush and Illinois streets.
Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2015.
“We are delighted to have secured a great building in a prime Chicago location,” said Geller in a statement.
Chicago is in the midst of a hotel boom as several new hotels are sprouting on and around the Michigan Avenue shopping district. New hotels that just opened or are in development include a 52-story Loews in Streeterville, the Virgin Hotel near Lake Street and Wabash Avenue, and a new 89-story riverfront residential and hotel tower to be designed by architect Jeanne Gang.
Geller, who was behind the development of the Hotel InterContinental and the Fairmont hotel, left Strategic Hotels & Resorts in late 2011. He has since launched his own real estate investment firm, Geller Investment, also known as L2.
crshropshire@tribune.com
Twitter @corilyns
