The Ritz-Carlton was scheduled to close December 26 for a major overhaul, according to Caron Le Brun, area director of public relations for the Ritz Carlton Hotels of Boston. Instead, the hotel will close October 7. "We moved up the date in response to the current significant decline in the hospitality business and the slowdown in the economy," she tells GlobeSt.com.

The hotel will undergo a $45-million restoration of the building's façade and renovation of the guest rooms, common areas and the entire interior of the building. The hotel is scheduled to open in fall 2002, to coincide with the celebration of its 75th anniversary.

Millennium Partners, which owns the 193-room hotel at Newbury and Arlington streets, recently opened a sister property, the Ritz-Carlton Boston Common, across the common on Tremont Street.