Marriott readies for opening of renovated downtown hotel
Livingston St., which was formerly a Marriott and later a Sheraton when it closed.
“Introducing the redesigned Marriott Orlando Downtown Hotel,” the website says. The hotel will also have the Shade Bar & Grill and Marriott’s “Fresh Bites” room service, 16,000 square feet of meeting space and 11 naturally lit breakout rooms.
Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR), based in Bethesda, Md., already has two other hotels downtown: The Courtyard Orlando Downtown, at 730 N Magnolia Ave., and a newer Residence Inn at 680 N. Orange Ave.
A third hotel in downtown Orlando, the Grand Bohemian Autograph Collection, is also a Marriott brand, about a mile away. And yet another Marriott brand, AC Hotels, is planned at the Church Street Plaza highrise under construction at the corner of West South Street and South Garland Avenue.
A subsidiary of New Yorkbased United Capital Corp. bought the hotel in an auction in 2015 for $12.625 million and planned the $20 million renovation. It was being renovated by scandal-plagued businessman Nikesh A. Patel, when Patel was arrested on charges of loan fraud in August 2014.
Steve Kronick of United Capital said the new owners are hopeful that entire area around the hotel will be coming back, especially with the plans for Creative Village and University of Central Florida’s downtown campus — although they are aware those projects have hit delays.
United Capital says it owns properties with more than 2,000 hotel rooms in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York State.