CHICAGO—The high-profile location and unprecedented cost of $200,000 a key for La Quinta’s newest property, the La Quinta Inn & Suites-Chicago Downtown, affirm the Dallas-based flag’s commitment to its franchisees and to the growth of the brand, said Wayne Goldberg, president and chief executive officer.
In a wide-ranging interview at the hotel June 16, Goldberg and other key executives of the 700-plus-hotel chain suggested that certain aspects of the new La Quinta, in the heart of the city’s financial district and steps from the theater district, would figure in other La Quinta properties. Among themes they stressed: cooperation with the city, sustainability, high style and interaction with local businesses.
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| The meeting space on the lower level of the La Quinta Chicago—Downtown also offers a casual area for conversation. |
The La Quinta event closely followed a similar production from Crowne Plaza. On June 1, executives of that InterContinental Hotels Group flag convened in New York City to trumpet the $85-million renovation of the Crowne Plaza Times Square. What these marketing presentations share, besides prominent, big-city sites, is intent: reaffirmation of brand position and putting on a brave face during challenging economic times. The new Chicago property is corporate-owned, showing La Quinta has skin in the game, according to Rajiv Trivedi, executive vice president of franchising and chief development officer.
“This is an encouragement to the franchise community,” he said.
Work is under way on a similar-sized La Quinta in downtown Houston (about 260 rooms).
In addition to a swimming pool and business center, rooms at the new Chicago La Quinta are larger than ones in most select-service hotels. According to Murry Cathlina, executive vice president of design and construction, they’re typically 320 square feet, and some suites are 550 square feet. There are four different room types.
There are 241 units including 23 suites; an indoor pool; a business center; a fitness center; 2,250 square feet of meeting space; a 500-square-foot board room; an onsite guest laundry; and a 3,000-square-foot “green roof” designed to reduce the carbon footprint. It also features 3,000 square feet of retail space to accommodate three local businesses: Argo Tea, Gourmet Cupcakes and the Halsted Street Deli, “all within the storefront of our building,” Goldberg said.
“There is nothing we’re missing here,” he said.
Goldberg said the hotel is La Quinta’s first complete adaptive reuse—of the former Jewish Federation Building. Constructed in 1958, the building was gutted and reconfigured, and two additional towers comprising a total of about 100 rooms were built. Temple Weiss, an executive vice president and the brand’s chief financial officer, said the project took more than two years and represents an investment of $50 million-plus, mostly in cash.
“In terms of location, we couldn’t have done better,” he said.
Also key to the project: a high-visibility lobby on the ground floor, with related local retail business, and “district cooling,” in which La Quinta buys water from the city instead of having to install its own equipment.
“Typically a hotel would buy two chillers so that if one fails, there is still one operating to provide chilled water for the hotel,” Cathlina said. “The city has several chillers and therefore has the redundancy that a hotel would have to buy two chillers to achieve.”
While the hotel is not Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified, it meets many LEED requirements, such as use of compact fluorescent bulbs and liquid crystal displays, as well as energy-management systems in the rooms. Cathlina said it might pursue such certification.
Since January, La Quinta has opened 17 hotels, representing more than 1,400 rooms, in 10 states. According to Trivedi, more than 250 more are in the pipeline. Most of the new ones feature the brand’s new urban prototype that was unveiled in May. Although its color scheme maintains La Quinta’s Southwestern palette, the new prototype, which La Quinta calls Urban Design, is more contemporary, with no terrazzo tile, flat roofs adaptable to advanced energy-management equipment including solar panels, and scalability. La Quinta executives claim it allows developers to adjust the number of stories and rooms to the demands of the location.
Among signs of that new design at the La Quinta Chicago Downtown: tall, insulated windows with energy-efficient, sound-deadening drapery; vivid color treatments; 32-inch, flat-screen TVs, microwave ovens and minifridges. In the large room on the second floor where the brand’s trademarked, complimentary Bright Side Breakfast is served, the large windows help integrate the busy corner of Madison and Franklin streets with the hotel itself.
Since the La Quinta Chicago Downtown opened in April, average daily rate has been about US$125 and occupancy about 40 percent, said Goldberg. But it’s ticking up, particularly in weekend and leisure business.
“Our industry lags the economy,” he said. “We’re no longer declining. We’re not at the bottom, but we’re very close.”