Hotel Cleveland, After Year of $80 Million Renovations, Will Open Anew in April

Since at least 1815, the land on the west side of Public Square has been, in some way, used for accommodations under a myriad of names and sizes.

In the 19th century, it was Mowrey's Tavern, then the Cleveland House and the City Hotel. Come 1918, on the eve of the Van Swerigen's Terminal Tower build, it was the Hotel Cleveland; then, in the 1950s, the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel. And then, in the 1970s, the name most Clevelanders bring to mind: the Renaissance Hotel.

This April, the 13-story complex will reopen completely made over using its probably most historical title: The Hotel Cleveland.

"This is going to be a living hotel that's going to tell a story," Frank McGee, the hotel's general manager, told press on Wednesday. "We can incorporate the spirit of the city into the design, and incorporate all of the experiences people have had here."

Besides highlighting the plot points of American history that played out in its lobbies and guest rooms—the Beatles lodging here before their 1964 stadium concert, Eliot Ness questioning a Torso murder suspect in the 1940s—the hotel itself has been brought very much into the 21st century.

The redesign's historicity had been so strong, Director of Sales & Marketing Kim Romance said, that the hotel has been receiving memorabilia for months.
"We had one woman send us a picture of her great-grandfather playing in an orchestra here," Romance told press, holding up the photo. "That's what really makes this hotel unique, and part of the city."

Under the guidance of Irish designer Colum McCartan, who led the design of the Westin on St. Clair Ave, over the past 15 months walls were repainted, ballrooms re-vinyled, guest rooms re-funished, chandeliers refurbished and floors re-marbled. (Using marble from the same quarry, in Missouri, the original builders used in 1918.)

What will turn out to be a "$80 million-plus" inclusion to the Marriott's Autograph Collection will, McGee said, play a part in the ongoing resurgence of Public Square, where the majority of its ground-floor retail still lays vacant.

A Hotel Cleveland revival, he added, might change that: "Build it first, and they will come," McGee said. (He envisions "food and beverage" clients replacing Joe Maxx and Boost Mobile, which will be gone by reopening.)

On a tour Wednesday, McGee and Kim Romance, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, previewed a clear homage to Cleveland at the height of its density: a Forest City Ballroom dressed in mural photos from 1908; a much whiter Grand Ballroom carpeted in an absract map of Northeast Ohio; a future Mowrey's restaurant (which replaces San Souci) on the first floor. Every guest room, it seems, has some mapwork or photographic homage to the era of the original hotel.

As for replicating the Hotel Cleveland's original signage—an electrical, stick-built one overlooking Public Square—McGee and Romance seemed slightly hesitant to confirm. Designs are still be finalized, they said. We're still working out the costs, they said.

But "I feel [the sign] is a necessity," McGee added. "Because, I mean, we're giving a nod to the original hotel from 1918. And that sign was there."

The Hotel Cleveland will have a soft reopening in mid-April, its team said. It's still open in about half the capacity, as its been since last August.

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