A year ago, few Chicagoans had ever heard of a condominium hotel. Today, this creative option is one of the hottest trends in downtown housing.
The Falor Companies has opened three new condominium models at Hotel Blake, at 500 S. Dearborn in Printers Row, and plans to convert the Century Building, at 202 S. State, into hotel condos later this year.
The Printers Row property has been run as a traditional 161-room hotel – the Hyatt Regency Printers Row – and will officially become Hotel Blake in March. That’s when it will be available to both condo owners and hotel guests as a “four-star boutique” hotel.
The condo units at Hotel Blake range from double rooms to king rooms and suites, priced from the $220s to more than $570,000. Features include marble and granite baths, contemporary furnishings, 42-inch plasma-screen televisions and wireless Internet access.
Buyers will own their units in fee simple and can choose from packages that allow them to occupy their spaces 35 nights, 14 nights or no nights each year. When owners are not using the units, the hotel rents them out, returning a portion of the revenue to owners.
“Everyone from business travelers to second-home buyers recognizes the value of owning a condominium within a hotel,” said Robert Falor, president and CEO of the Falor Companies. “Now that buyers can view the models and see the finishes…we anticipate that sales will take on the same urgency we saw in the first phase of this project.” Falor sold out the first phase of the development, which was originally called the Morton, in three weeks.
The 98-room Century Building is slated to open in spring of 2005.