CHICAGO — The thousands of travelers who flock to McCormick Place for conventions and big-ticket expos like the Chicago Auto Show will have another convenient place to crash.
Officials have given the green light to build a new 1,200-room hotel near the convention center, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), which runs McCormick Place, announced Tuesday.
The hotel will be located on the south side of Cermak Road between Indiana and Michigan avenues.
The Authority, known as McPier, owns the 800-room McCormick Place Hyatt Regency, which is undergoing a 460-room, $90 million expansion.
Construction on the new hotel will start in the winter of 2014 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, said Mary Kay Marquisos, spokeswoman for the MPEA.
"Developments like this are exactly why the reforms we passed at McCormick Place are so crucial for our success," Emanuel said in a release issued Tuesday morning.
Pressure Point Studios, a recording facility located at 2239 S. Michigan Ave., next to the adjacent lot eyed for the hotel's footprint, had not been contacted about the development plan as of Tuesday, and has no intention of relocating at present, spokeswoman Cassandra Aderman told DNAinfo.com Chicago.
The project will create nearly 2,500 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs, which are expected to be filled by local residents, according to the city. Once open, the hotel will allow McCormick Place to add about 15 midsize events per year, potentially bringing in 80,000 more attendees, officials say.
A skybridge will connect the hotel directly across Indiana Avenue to McCormick Place's west building. The hotel will be served by a new Green Line stop planned for Cermak near the convention center, Emanuel said.
The project will cost about $400 million, officials said.
