RIVER NORTH — River North, a neighborhood full of hotels, could soon get two more of them.
Two developers filed zoning applications Wednesday for a pair of new hotels totaling 399 rooms they want to build in the neighborhood. If approved, they would join the bustling pipeline of hotels expected to be built Downtown by the end of 2017.
Chicago-based Akara Partners proposed a 17-story, 200-room hotel at Huron and Clark streets. Akara originally bought the vacant lot at 100 W. Huron St. with plans for condominiums, but scrapped that plan last year amid slow sales. Rajen Shastri, Akara's chief executive officer, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Reporter David Matthews talks about the latest developments in River North.
Just blocks away, a Michigan developer wants to build his own 17-story, 199-room hotel at LaSalle and Hubbard streets. A venture led by Jake Porritt of Troy, Mich. is under contract to buy the site at 430-438 N. LaSalle St., currently a parking lot, from Chicago-based Midwest Property Group, which had been marketing the property for a retail project.
Porritt and a Midwest Property Group executive did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
A sketch of the proposed hotel at 430 N. LaSalle St. filed with the city Wednesday.
Both projects were filed with the city because they require City Council approval. If approved, the hotels would join the flurry of new hotels under construction Downtown, including the LondonHouse at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive and the 1,200-room Marriott Marquis underway near McCormick Place. Neighborhood meetings have yet to be announced for the proposed hotels. The 10 hotels built Downtown last year represented the biggest hotel building boom here in 30 years, according to Crain's.
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