Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel Remains on Track and Underground Walkway to Huntington Garage is a Possibility

By Karen Farkas, Northeast Ohio Media Group

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The $276 million Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel remains on track and on budget, the project manager told Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday.

There is still a chance that an underground walkway could be built below Lakeside Avenue to connect the hotel and Huntington Garage, where guests will park, said Jeffrey Appelbaum, the Cleveland lawyer managing the project for the county.

Appelbaum said some breakthroughs in proposed engineering could overcome initial concerns about the cost of the walkway. But he he said he is not ready to provide details, including the cost.

"It is not yet ready for prime time, but we are close to being able to talk about some options," he said.

The county could pay for the walkway out of a $34 million contingency fund that will remain when the project is completed, he said.

The convention hotel being built by Cuyahoga County is about 60 percent complete and on track to be finished in time for the NBA Finals and Republican National Convention in July 2016, Appelbaum said.

Hilton's officials told council they are actively marketing the 600-room hotel, which will include 37 themed suites and meeting spaces named after bridges. 

"The Light and Warmth of Hospitality Comes to Cleveland," is Hilton's marketing plan, according to the presentation.

The company plans to attract larger and more frequent bookings and capitalize on the power of the medical market, they said. 

"There is a huge corporate market and we hired an individual for business travel," said Teri Agosta, the hotel's general manager. Hilton has employees in Chicago and the east coast to market the hotel to associations, she said. A sales employee is assigned to bringing in medical meetings.

Agosta and Ronnie Collins, director of sales and marketing, told council the county has to live up to its promises, including completing the pedestrian bridge to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and renovating Huntington Garage, where guests will park.

The 32-story structure, which will be connected to the Cleveland Convention Center, should be completed by Sept. 18 and the exterior walls should be up by Oct. 20, Appelbaum said. A "topping out" ceremony will likely be Oct. 1, he said.

The hotel will be substantially completed by April 1, 2016 and the grand opening will be on June 1.

The average room rate will be $150.

Applebaum, who last provided an update in April, said the project has gone forward with few glitches, other than cold weather in the winter. 

The project's $276.2 million budget includes a $4 million design contingency and a $9.2 million owner contingency that will be spent, Appelbaum said.

Contingency funds were spent on several items, including replacing a stairway with escalators from the convention center to the lobby of the hotel ($331,538), a revised restaurant entry ($299,358) and cornice steel for the roof of the hotel's four-level "podium," which contains the main lobby and ballrooms ($737,377).

The county also spent $221,600 for glass walls for conference rooms outside the main and junior ballrooms that allow the areas to be open for functions.

"It will enhance the ability to sell the building," Appelbaum said.

The county plans $18 million in repairs to the garage.

Plans for the hotel grew out of a 2013 accord between Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and then-County Executive Ed FitzGerald.

They agreed to use excess cash from a quarter-cent sales-tax increase levied by the county to pay for the new $465 million downtown convention center and adjacent Global Center for Health Innovation to finance additional projects, including the convention hotel.

All three facilities will be connected to each other below grade.