‘Full cosmetic refresh’: Vacant Holiday Inn renovation to move forward to resolve eyesore
The Mount Prospect Holiday Inn, closed since late 2020, is getting ready for a full makeover focused on transforming what officials have considered an eyesore.
The village’s planning and zoning commission Thursday gave its blessing to plans for the renovation and reopening of the hotel at 200 E. Rand Road, which has had a troubled history of vandalism and code violations.
REIT 200 LLC plans to reopen the hotel under the Holiday Inn brand, with a restaurant and banquet hall. A Bar Louie closed along with the hotel in 2020. It had been operating continuously since 1966, with major interior remodels in 1977, 1998, and 2009.
In 2023, an administrative adjudication judge approved $20,550 in fines against the previous owner, HDDA-Mount Prospect LLC.
“The amount of time we have had to spend in terms of addressing vandalism in that building is considerable,” Mount Prospect Village Manager Michael Cassady said at the time.
The new owner, Chris Patel, told commissioners last week he aims for a “full cosmetic refresh,” with a new restaurant concept. Renovation will include new paint, restoration of damaged stone work and replacement of damaged doors and windows.
Patel said the hope is to be open by the end of the year.
While the outside is not in bad shape, the inside will see a complete renovation, he said.
“We do have a great team that’s worked on this hotel previously,” he said.
The three-story, 80,000-square-foot building has 139 guest rooms, space for a 5,326-square-foot restaurant and a 3,376-square-foot banquet/meeting space.
The hotel would provide a complimentary shuttle service between the hotel and O’Hare International Airport.
“Especially nowadays, there is a lot more usage of Uber and other sources,” Patel said.
Commissioner William Beattie raised a concern that the site would not have enough parking. It is short of the 127 spaces required by village code.
“We have looked at every single record that we could find from when this hotel was operating, from 2019 going back five to 10 years prior. We do not have a single documented parking complaint,” Community Development Director Jason Shallcross said.
Commissioner Richard Rogers said he never saw the parking lot full because “the original hotel was not really up to snuff.”
The developer plans to restripe the existing 137 parking stalls to get to 140. In addition, the plan includes cross-parking agreements with neighbors at 201 and 303 E. Kensington Road, which have a surplus of about 42 parking spaces.
The plan received a unanimous recommendation and goes before the village board on March 17.