Aloft Hotel renovations to start this spring, builder says
90-year-old Chattanooga Bank Building to undergo $31 million makeover
Work is to begin this spring on the proposed Aloft Hotel in the 90-year-old Chattanooga Bank Building, the project’s builder said Thursday.
“There’s a lot of work to be done cleaning it up, and there are historical considerations,” said David Smith, vice president for Russell Construction Co., about the 10-story downtown structure.
Smith said the hotel, which was originally proposed more than two years ago, will have 159 rooms, a restaurant and bar, and a couple of ground-floor retail spaces. He said that work would likely take up to 14 months to remake the building at 736 Broad St.
Robert Lubin, president of Virginia-based developer AMCA LP, said last year his group was financing the $31 million hotel with the help of a federal initiative set up about 25 years ago called the Immigrant Investor Program, or EB-5. The program allows foreigners to invest money and create jobs in the United States in exchange for green cards allowing them to become permanent residents.
“It’s an interesting project. It has an old historical exterior, but when you walk in, there’s a youthful, colorful interior.”
– NICK MESSERLIAN, WITH HOTEL DESIGNER HEFFERLIN + KRONENBERG ARCHITECTS
However, Forbes recently called the EB-5 program “a politically contentious issue” that’s set to expire in April after being extended by Congress late last year.
U.S. developers are unsure what position President Donald Trump and his administration will take on whether to keep it alive, according to Forbes, though experts said they do not expect the proposed EB-5 rules to survive in their current form.
Nick Messerlian, with hotel designer Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects, cited the building’s history and noted the exterior design received U.S. Interior Department review.
“They were making sure that what we change on the exterior is in touch with the original building’s intent,” he said.
Messerlian said designers are preserving the building’s historic outside while putting in the Aloft Hotel’s youthful, trendy brand inside.
“It’s an interesting project,” he said. “It has an old historical exterior but when you walk in, there’s a youthful, colorful interior.”
Smith, whose construction firm is located in Davenport, Iowa, said developers have made arrangements for valet parking in lots which are off site.
But, he said, they’re also talking with River City Co. related to a downtown parking study that was kicked off in January.
The study, by San Francisco-based consultant Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, is looking at how downtown parking will change over the next decade and identify actions to support central city growth.
The $250,000 parking study, in addition to looking at the city’s core, will focus on the Southside and the M.L. King corridor stretching to UTC and to Erlanger hospital and be ready this summer.
“There’s so much growth, all the new construction downtown, we’re
trying to get ahead of the curve,” said Kim White, who heads River City.
The bank building was constructed to house Chattanooga Savings Bank in 1927 and modified when that business was absorbed by First National Bank.
After the bank closed, the building housed dental, medical, Tennessee Valley Authority and other offices for many years. Tenants were asked to leave in 2009 when another developer proposed a Crown Plaza hotel and condo project, but that project never got off the ground.
The Aloft Hotel will be one of four new hotels slated to open in downtown Chattanooga over
the next two years.
Developers Ken and Byron DeFoor are converting the Gold Building at Pine Street and M.L. King Boulevard, formerly the headquarters of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, into a 261-room Westin hotel.
Vision Hospitality is building a 90-room boutique hotel known as The Edwin near the Walnut Street Bridge. Also, a new Hilton brand will come downtown when a 114-room Tru hotel opens its doors in 2018, according to developer Vision.