The hotel will have 610 rooms and suites, and 48,000 sf of ballroom and conference meeting space. There will also be a 20,000-sf spa and health club. The hotel is expected to open in early 2010.

The property will be managed and operated by Marriott International. In addition to converting the floors, the venture will also renovate the 335,000 rentable sf of office space on the top nine floors of the building and the 18,000 rentable sf of retail space on the ground floor, Vogler says. The renovation of the office space is expected to be completed in early 2009. Once tenants are moved from the lower floors to the upper nine floors, the building will be 100% leased with approximately 110 tenants that are mainly "independent, small service firms," Vogler tells GlobeSt.com.

The 874,000-sf building in Chicago's Financial District was built in 1916 and was one of the last buildings designed by famous architect Daniel Burnham before his death. The building is a historic landmark on the National Register of Historic Places and is also deemed a landmark by the state and city. Prime Group acquired the building in late 2005 for $44 million from Prime Group Realty Trust, as previously reported by GlobeSt.com. "The building had just been vacated by ABN AMRO Bank," Vogler says. "We were going to retrofit those bank floors into Class B+/A- office space." The company then considered the possibility of connecting to the W Hotel across the street and having about 100 hotel rooms in the building before considering various hotel options. There are not a lot of hotels in the area, except the Palmer House Hilton, he says. "We think we will have the market to ourselves," Vogler says. There is a lot of Class A office space in the area and "that market of office space is greatly underserved," he says.