O'Hare airport to get 2 new hotels, revamp planned for Hilton
The city of Chicago is planning to up the ante in the growing hotel market around O'Hare International Airport with the announcement of two new hotels to be built at the airport, along with major renovations to the existing O'Hare Hilton Hotel.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in announcing the plans, said the estimated $35 million project will more than double current hotel capacity at the airport and add 1,250 jobs.
The Chicago Department of Aviation will finance and develop a new hotel adjacent to Terminal 5, where international flights arrive and depart. That hotel will have 300 to 400 rooms and 25,000 to 65,000 square feet of conference and banquet space, the mayor's office announced.
A second hotel will be built on the northeast side of O'Hare near Mannheim Road. It will have about 150 rooms.
Stephen Spector, a spokesman for Mayor Emanuel, said via email the plan has drawn interest from prospective investors, but did not specify whom. The department will host an Industry Day in July to further discuss the projects.
Chicago's bid to bring in more hotel rooms comes amid a boom of activity in the region around O'Hare.
"It's a very competitive market," said David Parulo, president of Meet Chicago Northwest, the Schaumburg-based convention and visitors' bureau for the Northwest suburbs. "We're seeing a lot money going into investment of new hotels and renovations of existing ones."
Rosemont, which has 15 hotels, just opened the newly refurbished eight-story, 200-room Hyatt Place Hotel this month at 6810 N. Mannheim Road.
The hotel complex was the former Wyndham O'Hare, which closed in January 2010.
Across the street in Des Plaines, construction on a five-story, 128-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites is scheduled to begin in September at Mannheim and Higgins roads.
Both hotels sit in proximity to the proposed second hotel on the airport's northeast side.
Rosemont is also planning a five-story, 163-room boutique hotel at The Pearl, Rosemont's planned dining and shopping complex south of Balmoral Avenue and west of the Tri-State Tollway. It would be the closest hotel to O'Hare, outside the airport property.
Plans for the O'Hare Hilton include renovating and modernizing with a goal to accommodate large trade shows.
Currently, the hotel's largest meeting room is 3,500 square feet and can hold about 300 guests, according to its website.
While the city's goal is to have all three facilities "used by businesses and other organizations for shows, conferences, summits and other activities that require the space to hold large groups of people," Spector said the project won't be competitive with suburban exhibition halls like the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont or the Renaissance Convention Center in Schaumburg.
"We don't envision creating another McCormick Place at O'Hare," he said.
Work on the O'Hare Hilton would start when the hotels' current lease expires in 2018, and would be completed in 2020. Bids on the other two projects are expected to begin this fall, according to the mayor's office.
• Daily Herald staff writer Christopher Placek contributed to this report.