Former Palatine hotel to reopen as senior apartment complex
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Workers put the finishing touches on the main lobby at The Grand at Twin Lakes, a new senior apartment complex opening in former hotel building 920 E. Northwest Highway in Palatine. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer
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The main dining room at The Grand at Twin Lakes, a new 118-unit apartment building for seniors opening in a former hotel building at 920 E. Northwest Highway in Palatine. The building has sat vacant since the 2012 closing of Hotel Bollero. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer
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Much of the work in the main lobby at The Grand at Twin Lakes is complete. The former hotel located at 920 E. Northwest Highway in Palatine is set to reopen to the public next month as apartments for seniors. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer
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All that's left to do at the movie theater inside The Grand at Twin Lakes is install the classic red seats. The former hotel located at 920 E. Northwest Highway in Palatine is set to reopen next month. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer
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A view of the courtyard outside a ground floor unit at The Grand at Twin Lakes in Palatine. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer
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An exterior view of The Grand at Twin Lakes, a new a new 118-unit apartment building for seniors opening in a former hotel building at 920 E. Northwest Highway in Palatine. The building has sat vacant since the 2012 closing of Hotel Bollero. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer
After sitting vacant for more than four years, the former hotel at 920 E. Northwest Hwy. in Palatine will reopen next month as an apartment complex for seniors called The Grand at Twin Lakes.
Since the last guests left what was most recently called Hotel Bollero in the spring of 2012, the building has undergone an extensive renovation.
"We brought it down to the studs," said David Pokorny, the regional director of operations for Grand Lifestyles, which oversees the Palatine senior living facility and five others. "It might as well be brand new now."
The work, which has been going on for about a year, included renovating the building's exterior, replacing most of the windows and infrastructure, and configuring what had been a 191-room hotel into a 118-unit apartment complex.
Pokorny said while you never know for sure with construction, they are expecting to welcome their first residents next month.
"It doesn't look like it, but they are really close to being done," Pokorny said while in the mostly empty dining area as crews in hard hats worked nearby in the building's lobby.
The apartment complex will feature a movie theater, swimming pool, exercise facilities, fenced-in courtyard and a path that leads to the Twin Lakes Recreation Area. Ellen Mostardini, The Grand's executive director, said they want residents to feel like the large park and golf course is in their backyard.
The Grand at Twin Lakes is at least the sixth name the building has had over the years. Marilyn Pedersen, museum coordinator for the Palatine Historical Society, said the building originally was a Howard Johnson's and likely was built in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
In the 1990s, the building operated as the Quality Hotel Woodfield. It was then the Doubletree Club Hotel Northwest until 2005, when it became the Hotel Indigo, an upscale establishment with 191 rooms. In 2011, the building changed hands again and operated briefly as Hotel Bollero before closing in 2012.
Pokorny said The Grand will have an opening event on May 12.
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