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The estimated $58.5 million Hotel Carmichael opened Thursday in Carmel City Center after more than 20 years of planning.
Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, the Carmel City Council and the city’s Redevelopment Commission first envisioned building a boutique hotel in the affluent Indianapolis suburb’s reimagined downtown in the 1990s.
But it wasn’t until 2018 that workers started construction on the six-story, 122-room hotel, after the city entered into a public-private partnership with Carmel-based Pedcor Companies. After several delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an ongoing internal review of the project’s finances, the Hotel Carmichael and its French restaurant Vivante are now open.
“This new hotel will serve the city, its residents, our performing arts community and our growing family of corporate headquarters who have told me over and over that they want more options when bringing in clients, employees and potential customers,” Brainard said in a written statement.
The 110,000-square-foot hotel is between the Monon Trail and Veterans Way in Carmel, just south of City Center Drive. City officials bill it as unlike any other hotel. It’s branded under Marriott International’s Autograph Hotel Collection and the city chose Coury Hospitality to manage its operations.
In addition to its first-floor restaurant, the Hotel Carmichael features 5,000 square feet of meeting space and the Feinstein Cabaret, which is scheduled to open later this year.
The hotel’s name is a combination of Carmel and Michael Feinstein, a Grammy-nominated performer and the city’s artistic director of the nearby Center for The Performing Arts.
City officials point to the tight labor market and global volatility in construction material costs for the hotel’s price tag swelling from $40 million in 2017 to as much as $58.5 million two years later.
Carmel’s city council voted to conduct an internal review of those finances and the hotel’s operations, but has yet to issue any recommendations.
Photos by IBJ’s Mickey Shuey.
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Should be named after one of Micheal Feinsteins, Great American songbook artists and Indy famed artist Hoagie Carmichael. Just don’t know how it will meet debt service at those room rates. Hope the City isn’t going to need to subsidize with citizens tax dollars.
Looks beautiful. Loving the retro decor. Hopefully it will be successful!
One thing it is doing “bigger” than anyone else in Carmel is price. It is nearly twice as expensive as the most expensive hotel in Carmel and more along the lines of Iron Works at 86/Keystone in Indy. I had the opportunity to tour Iron Works during their grand opening and the quality and thought that went into the building and the rooms was amazing. This hotel will have its work cut out for them.
That said, as a citizen this is still a misuse of tax dollars and limited resources. Opening a hotel at the worst possible time, and we all know we’ll likely have to subsidize it earlier, just like the concert venues it sits next to.
I estimate a$10M taxpayer subsidy by the City each year. Add that to the, $6M s year subsidy to the Palladium by the City . Life is so wonderful in Carmel.
I mentioned that the interior looked like a Vegas casino and it seemed to have been deleted.
WSJ article before Covin indicated 66% was the average occupancy of hotels. The Mayors’ consultant said the hotel will need 85% occupancy to break even.This is why the private sector would not build the hotel. Brainard will blame the losses on Covin and Carmel taxpayers will pay for the deficit just like the Palladium. The people in Carmel are in na na land.
I don’t see this working out, amazing interior but if I am visiting Indy I’m not staying way up in Carmel. Insert Curb your Enthusiasm theme song