Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421 on Twitter. Nair estimated it will take at least six months to get business to an ideal 70 percent average nightly occupancy. Rooms at the hotel currently cost $119 to $229 a night, depending on the room, Diaz said. However, those rates will change by seasons and days of the week, he said. The city is providing $3 million worth of city tax rebates and other incentives over 10 years to help pay for the renovations. On Tuesday, he declined to give an updated cost. Nair said the renovation would cost about $12 million when the project began. The Indigo brand is largely aimed at business people who are "young at heart and willing to try new things," he said.īryan Crowe, who oversees El Paso's convention and tourism agency as the city's quality of life managing director, labeled the hotel "beautiful with nicely appointed rooms." He particularly likes the fifth-floor pool and bar area, which he predicts will be a big hit. He said he expects the hotel to be a success, and that should help draw other hotel operators to the Downtown market, which needs more hotel rooms. View Gallery: Photos: Hotel Indigo Opens in Downtown El Pasoĭiaz, the hotel general manager, said Indigo takes a different approach from InterContinental Hotels Group's other brands, such as Holiday Inn, which, he said, aim to look and feel the same everywhere. Indigo strives to be unique in each location, he said. "Boutique hotels are a growing trend in the hotel industry," said Rey, community and marketing manager in San Antonio for Yelp, a San Francisco-based online and mobile business guide featuring reviews of businesses from millions of customers in markets worldwide. "This has a general urban feel" that you find in Los Angeles and other large cities, and appeals to the "late 20s and late 30s demographics," said Rey, 26. It doesn't have the "cookie-cutter feel" of many hotel chains. "This is a great addition to El Paso." Tomas Rey, back in his hometown for a business trip, was impressed with the hotel after staying there Tuesday night. "But when you see it live, finished, it's a big satisfaction." "To get the artistic part to match with the operations of the hotel was not easy," Diaz said. The hotel lobby, located on the fifth floor, where the hotel really begins, looks out to the pool and bar areas. It also features paintings, murals, sculptures and photos by mostly local artists in rooms and public areas. The hotel's design incorporates exposed concrete pillars, wood panels, steel components and huge windows throughout that give it an urban, industrial feel. The last was the independent Artisan Hotel, which closed in March 2010 after a rocky five months of operation by a Las Vegas hotel owner. The 12-story building, with a three-level parking garage sandwiched between its ground floor and seven floors of hotel rooms, housed several hotel brands over the years. The hotel's ground-floor restaurant is still under construction and is expected to open by the end of February, said Miguel Diaz, the hotel's general manager. 21 - about a month later than Nair's group had announced in November when construction was still in full swing. "That was a pleasant surprise" that showed a lot of local interest in the new hotel, he said. Nair, chief executive officer of Esperanto Developments, an El Paso hotel developer and operator, said the Downtown hotel seeks to not only attract out-of-town travelers, but also plans to draw El Paso residents to its Circa 1963 lobby bar and ground-floor restaurant, with a goal of becoming the local "staycation spot."Ī Facebook posting during the weekend about the hotel opening brought about 80 people to the fifth-floor bar Saturday night, Nair said. "Now, the battle is to get the service culture and operational part perfect. "I feel great," said Madhi Nair, one of the hotel's owners, as he stood in its expansive fifth-floor bar, which looks out toward an outside pool area with close-up views of historic Downtown buildings and the mountains above Juárez. It's part of the Indigo chain started in 2004 by InterContinental Hotels Group, or IHS, one of the world's largest hotel companies. Kansas St., a block from City Hall, was gutted and turned into a sleek, hip, 119-room boutique hotel at a cost of more than $12 million. Hotel Indigo has opened in Downtown El Paso in a 53-year-old building that was transformed through a yearlong multimillion-dollar renovation. The hip factor in Downtown hotels has gone up.
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