06/12/2013
Renovation, Expansion at Hyatt McCormick Completed
The Hyatt Regency McCormick Place officially opened its new 460-room tower and unveiled its $110-million expansion and renovation project on Wednesday.
Thursday, June 6, 2013 By Michael Hart
The Hyatt Regency McCormick Place officially opened its new 460-room tower and unveiled its $110-million expansion and renovation project on Wednesday.
Along with adding the 460 guest rooms to the hotel connected by a walkway to Chicago’s McCormick Place, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA)—which owns the hotel—also renovated the existing 800 rooms with new furniture, fixtures and designs, and refurbished its lobby, restaurants, bars and 25,000-square-foot conference center.
With the completion of the project, started in late 2011, the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place now has 50,000 sq. ft. of function space, including a redesigned 4,000 sq. ft. Prairie Room for events and a 12,000 sq. ft. ballroom. It also added new boardrooms and a business center to the conference center.
Hyatt Regency General Manager Paul Daly says, “This will allow Hyatt Regency McCormick Place to play an even larger role in attracting and hosting Chicago’s top meetings and conventions.”
The hotel expansion and renovation is the first step in a massive redevelopment project around the convention center that the MPEA, city of Chicago and private-sector players will eventually spend nearly $1 billion on.
See Also: Chicago Plans Events Center, Re-Signs Major Shows
A 10,000-seat events center that will be linked to McCormick Place West by a pedestrian sky bridge will serve as a general session hall for conventions and tradeshows, a venue for concerts and special events and a home court for DePaul University men’s and women’s basketball.
A new $841 million entertainment district northwest of McCormick Place West will include two more hotels and restaurants. The larger, 1,200-room hotel will serve as a single headquarters hotel for McCormick Place shows. A 500-room mid-market boutique hotel will be developed adjacent to the events center.
The McCormick Place Entertainment District is part of a larger development called Elevate Chicago, which will include redevelopment of the Navy Pier as well.