The long-awaited expansion of the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place has begun, with the first phase involving construction of a new 460-room tower, the hotel announced this morning.
The new tower, which also will include 12 suites and 2 premium suites, is expected to be finished in mid-2013.
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the state-city agency that owns the hotel, will invest about $110 million in the project, whose later phases will include redesign of its coffee shop, Daily Grind; expansion and renovation of the main lobby, and renovation of the 800 existing guest rooms, some meeting space and the hotel’s restaurant. Those phases will begin later this year, and in 2013.
The authority has wanted to move the project forward for several years, saying it will make the convention complex more attractive to trade show organizers. The project finally began to move forward after the General Assembly in mid-2010 gave the authority the green light to restructure its debt.
“We are thrilled to see this project commence, which will help attract even more convention business to Chicago since the opening of the McCormick Place West Building,” Tom Pagels, the hotel’s general manager, said in a prepared statement.