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An Indianapolis hotel development firm has transferred its Tapestry by Hilton hotel concept originally planned for downtown’s former Ike & Jonesy’s building to a nearby site that it had previously eyed for a separate hotel project.
Sun Development & Management Co. plans to spend at least $30 million to build a 150-room Tapestry on a parking lot at the northwest corner of South Meridian Street and Jackson Place, owner Bharat Patel told IBJ.
A 110-room Tapestry for several years had been expected to go into the historic, 12-story Jackson Square building at 233 McCrea St., at a cost of $15 to $18 million. That building will now get another, yet-undisclosed concept, Patel said.
Sun Development has owned both properties since September 2016, acquiring them in a package deal from Maryland-based Choice Hotels International.
Sun had planned to construct a 150-room, 11-story Cambria hotel—one of Choice’s upper-scale brands—on the parking lot but scrapped the $22 million project in November 2018 due to escalating costs.
Indianapolis-based MWA LLC announced last year it had gained the right to use the Cambria flag and planned a 148-room development at 850 S. Meridian St., near Shapiro’s Delicatessen.
Patel said Sun Development is relying on the former Cambria designs from Ratio Architects for the new Tapestry project, noting the company “is basically just putting a new name on the [previously proposed] building.”
As had been planned for the Cambria, the Tapestry would have retail space on the ground floor, parking on its second through fifth floors, and a lobby on the sixth floor, with about 150 hotel rooms above that.
No filings have yet been submitted to the city, although Patel said Sun hopes to shore up financing for the project by the end of the year, if possible. But he noted that while the “firm is committed to all its local projects,” the Tapestry project is the lowest priority.
Sun Development has several other projects in the works around the United States, including in Nashville and Cincinnati, along with a Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites project at 414 W. Vermont St. downtown that it hopes to open by the end of 2020.
Patel said Sun has selected the brand for the hotel that will go into the Jackson Place building, and he said it would have about 120 rooms. However, he declined to identify the brand because the parties have not signed a licensing agreement.
Even so, work is expected to start on the project within several months. To set the stage for construction, Ike & Jonesy’s restaurant—which had been in the building since 1984—closed on New Year’s Day.
Designs for the building, also by Ratio, are being reworked to move the second-floor lobby to the ground floor following the exit by the restaurant.
Patel said the firm has not yet determined exact costs of converting the building into a hotel. He said he hopes to secure financing in the coming months.
About 20% of the project’s cost is expected to be covered by the sale of historic federal tax credits, he said.
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THATS EXACTLY WHAT SUN DEVELOPMENT DOSE BAIT AND SWITCH!!!!!
Craig, sounds like you’ve got a bone to pick. From all I have seen, Sun Development appears to do great projects. The decision to do a brand new from-the-ground-up Tapestry and do a different hotel brand in the Jackson Square building means more construction jobs and more hotel capacity in the Wholesale District. Not sure how you conclude that is a bad thing.
Actually Craig is spot on about the bait and switch. I know for a fact that part of the deal when Sun purchased both properties is that they would build and operate a Cambria Suites on the parking lot site. Then about a year ago Sun announced that it was cost prohibitive to develop the Cambria. Now, miraculously, Sun has found a way to develop a Hilton-branded hotel on the property.