More than five years after the global pandemic jarred the hospitality industry, a developer is changing designs and brands to try to kick off a long-planned hotel in Chicago’s River North.
Porritt Group is seeking to amend plans with the city for a hotel it plans to build on a surface parking lot at the corner of Hubbard and LaSalle streets, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly informed constituents in an email Wednesday.
Under the new plan for 150 W. Hubbard St., Porritt Group proposes a 15-story tower with 297 rooms for a new flag, Cloud One Hotels, according to the downtown alderman.
That brand is part of Munich-based Motel One Group, a Europe-focused company that currently has just one U.S. hotel, in New York.
Cloud One would replace Hyatt’s Andaz luxury brand, which previously was tabbed as the brand for a larger tower that first won city zoning approval in 2016 and later was scaled back to 16 stories and 341 rooms.
The Michigan-based real estate firm has been working to build a hotel on the site since years before the arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020, but “changed market conditions” led to a shift to the “affordable luxury” hotel brand making shorter stays in Chicago, Reilly said in the email.
In March, Paris-based private equity firm PAI Partners announced it was taking an 80% ownership stake in Motel One Group’s operational business, with founder Dieter Muller to remain as chairman and help the company expand globally.
Last year, Proprium Capital Partners sold its 35% stake in Motel One Group for $1.36 billion after 17 years as a partner with majority partner One Hotels & Resorts. That deal valued the company at the time at $4.5 billion.
In a 2024 financial report, Motel One said it had 99 hotels at the end of last year, with 2025 openings set for Munich, London, Paris, Vienna and Lisbon, Portugal.
Cloud One Hotels, launched in 2022, has properties in New York, Prague, Gdańsk, Poland, and Hamburg and Düsseldorf in Germany.
It’s unclear how soon Porritt hopes to begin construction of the Chicago hotel just north of the Loop business district, and the firm did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News. A description of the NORR-designed tower on Porritt’s website lists a completion timeline of 2026.
The proposal includes a 3,800-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor, event space and a rooftop bar.