After a deal to convert a former Procter & Gamble Co. office building into a boutique luxury hotel died, a different developer has the building under contract with plans to renovate it into a 160-room hotel.
NewcrestImage LLC, a Lewisville, Texas-based company, has the building at 299 E. Sixth St. under contract for purchase. Gary Mills, vice president of real estate for NewcrestImage, said the company plans to convert the building into a full-service hotel with a major brand.
“You can’t beat the location,” Mills told me.
NewcrestImage, which is a privately owned hotel development, construction and management firm, designs, builds and operates state-of-the-art hotels for brands such as Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott. The company was contacted by a consultant that was working on the conversion project with Kessler Enterprise Inc. to turn the building, also known as the Sycamore Building and the Duttenhofer Building, into a boutique hotel.
“We specialize in adaptive reuse,” Mills told me.
NewcrestImage restored the historic Fisk Building in downtown Amarillo, Texas into a Courtyard by Marriott in 2010. The project won Best Adaptive Reuse in 2011 from the Texas Downtown Association.
Mills said since NewcrestImage was contacted about the building it has performed a lot of due diligence on the property and the Cincinnati hotel market. He expects to close on the purchase of the building in the first quarter of 2016 and start the conversion to a hotel shortly thereafter. The renovation project would take about 12 months. If all goes according to plan, NewcrestImage would be looking at an early 2017 opening for the hotel.
While details have not been finalized, Mills said the Sycamore Building offers great street-level space for a restaurant.
“We want to provide food and beverage offerings to local corporate users and be a destination on weekends,” Mills said.
Mills said the number and design of rooms and suites will be determined in part by the hotel brand, which has not been determined at this point.
“There are still big decisions to be made,” Mills said.
Cincinnati’s abundance of Fortune 500 companies was one factor in NewcrestImage’s decision to put the building under contract. Mills also said the company looked at the performance of existing hotels and plans for new hotels that have been announced. The location will benefit by serving corporate travelers Monday through Thursday while still being close to the city’s core for weekend leisure travelers.
“We feel there can be a nice, full-service hotel in that specific location,” Mills said.
Like Kessler, NewcrestImage is exploring the possibility of a rooftop bar or event space.
NewcrestImage will pursue historic tax credits for the project as well as incentives from the city of Cincinnati.
Currently, the building is owned by an affiliate of Scott Street Partners. A Cincinnati-based real estate investor, Scott Street Partners purchased the building from Procter & Gamble in August 2014 for $5.2 million, looking at all opportunities for the 110,000-square-foot property.
After the deal to sell the building to Kessler fell through, Bill Poffenberger, executive vice president with JLL in Cincinnati and the listing agent for the building, said the property was back on the market for $9.9 million.
Back in July, Poffenberger said someone would jump at the chance to acquire the Sycamore Building.
“The real estate is too good,” Poffenberger told me then. “Somebody will jump on it quickly.”