SOUTH BEND — Aloft South Bend, a Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide hotel, will occupy the former Chase Tower, remaking downtown South Bend’s tallest building as part of a $30 million mixed-use development, according to a press release issued this morning.
Starwood’s first hotel in the region, Aloft South Bend will feature 183 loft-style rooms on 11 floors of the building, 3,750 square feet of meeting space and a new entrance on Main Street with a restaurant and lobby bar.
The development is the first phase of the mixed-use project that will also feature the conversion of former office space into 83 apartments. Rehabilitation of the existing parking garage is set to begin this fall with the new hotel scheduled to open in early 2017.
The former Chase Tower will undergo a comprehensive renovation that will entail both exterior and interior improvements as well as new mechanical systems. Kramer Design Group, the architect and designer of Aloft Detroit at the David Whitney, will lead the $15 million redesign of the hotel. South Bend-based Bradley Co. is also teaming up to support the project.
“Aloft South Bend will become an attraction for residents and visitors alike,” Brad Toothaker, Bradley's president and CEO, said in a statement. “We look forward to transforming South Bend’s tallest building into a property worthy of its stature.”
The building’s owner, the Tower at Washington Square LLC, will be seeking tax abatements on the building’s new components in a petition that will come before the South Bend Common Council approval at its Sept. 28 meeting.