A 122-room boutique Chicago hotel has sold for more than $13 million, setting up a new chapter for a property that in recent years served as a homeless shelter while the property was mired in a foreclosure suit.
An affiliate of Avasa Hospitality earlier this month bought the 15-story building at 100 E. Chestnut St. that was long known as the Tremont Hotel, according to online property records.
The hotel is changing hands as the nearby Magnificent Mile, the city’s best-known shopping corridor along Michigan Avenue, is showing signs of a sustained comeback after years of sluggish retail leasing demand.
Another local hotel investor recently made a larger bet on lodging in the shopping corridor. Vinayaka Hospitality late last year paid $72 million for the 752-room Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago at 909 N. Michigan Ave.
The Chestnut Street property was known locally as the home of former Chicago Bears player and coach Mike Ditka’s restaurant, which closed in the early months of COVID-19 in 2020 after more than two decades in business there.
That closure came about two months after the hotel, then under the Selina brand, shut down after the pandemic’s arrival.
The vacant property’s owner, Indianapolis-based Hotel Capital, was hit with a $25 million foreclosure suit in 2023 by the lender, an affiliate of LaSalle Investment Management.
The vacant hotel was later used by the city as a temporary homeless shelter in 2023 and 2024 after waves of migrants arrived from other states, creating a shortage of space for unhoused locals and newcomers.
Chicago officials shuttered the shelter in September 2024.
Chicago-based LaSalle Investment Management, which seized the property in a judicial sale last fall, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s unclear what Avasa Hospitality has planned for the property or how soon it could reopen as a hotel. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News.
The recent $13.2 million purchase was backed by a $10 million loan from Millennium Bank, according to Cook County records.
It appears to be the first property owned by Elk Grove Village, Illinois-based Avasa Hospitality, according to the firm’s website, which shows several hotels in its suburban Chicago portfolio. The company has design and management experience.
For the record
The seller was represented by Paramount Lodging Advisors broker Sanjeev Misra.