In a few months, a five-story Home2Suites hotel by Hilton will begin rising on the corner of Jefferson Street and Hancock Street in Nulu. Several tipsters have reported in the past few days that crews were on site digging around, so we checked in with Bill Weyland, managing partner at developer City Properties Group, to get the latest.
“We have gotten in the ground to do some soils analysis,” Bill Weyland told Broken Sidewalk yesterday. “As you can imagine, there’s a bunch of old remnants of buildings—foundation walls and things.” He noted that the work is preliminary and isn’t actually construction. Rather, it will help engineers finalize the building’s foundation plan.
The design of the 100-room Home2Suites follows in line with Hilton’s standard look for the hotel chain. The bulk of the hotel faces Hancock Street, which helps with Weyland’s efforts to bridge the gap between East Market Street and areas to the south. It also allows for unloading on the quieter of the two streets. A parking lot is shown to the west of the hotel along Jefferson Street. No retail is planned in the building. The hotel also includes an indoor pool.
City Properties Group expects the hotel to cater to both patients at the Medical Center to the south and visitors to Nulu. The company is working with First Hospitality Group of Chicago on the project. The same duo partnered on the Hilton Garden Inn at Fourth and Chestnut streets.
“We’ve been really working on that and the Louisville Chemical Building to roll them forward at the same time,” Weyland said. “Both those projects have layers of complication. The hotel on the soils side and Louisville chem from the environmental side.
The Louisville Chemical Building will be rebranded as the Lofts on Hancock and will house 12 apartments and three retail spots. You can read more about that project and catch our interview with Weyland on why improving Nulu’s walkability is key to its future here.
Weyland said both projects should be under construction by the beginning of October. If all goes as planned, construction will wrap up by the end of next summer. “We’ll have a more accurate construction schedule after we verify the issues we’ve got now,” he noted.
Not a great building, but it holds the corner well. And most importantly no buildings were harmed in the making of this Hotel.
Another boring generic hotel for Lou ….How impressive
Time to bring on the murals, pasties, and special effects to draw the eye away from the utter Blandness we need to stop embracing. Yes fill the corner. No not with this clone of every boring banal thing currently underway in Louisville. Every time we miss a good infill opportunity – especially one in the shadowy maw of xway hell, we lose. Where’s design review when you need it? Meanwhile in a Middletown strip mall, we get faux Victorian Louvino. Go figure .
A hotel right by the hospital that caters to long term stays, producing more jobs in Louisville and such a modern design! Way to go CPG and FHG…We cant wait to see this project brought to life!
Amen to this being quite generic. I don’t understand this contemporary style that seems to be every single new building downtown and the surrounding area. Amp, the Axis, Clay and Main, etc., they all look quite bad. The new Phoenix Hill building looks nice and Norton Commons is seeing a lot of quality buildings that are derivatives of older styles Will we ever get back to building quality unique buildings on narrow lots downtown like what you see on West Main? I wonder why every single project has to be block or half block wide with just one tiny token retail space with what seems to be their obligatory setback where they want to plant some bushes that kills that real urban feel.
Restoring the old Louisville Chemical Building it the big story and a very positive one.