Column: Opening of Navy Pier hotel is postponed, the latest blow to city’s reeling hotel market
Before Navy Pier temporarily shut down on Labor Day, officials of the popular lakefront attraction remained optimistic about the planned opening of The Sable Hotel, built atop an existing pier building. So did the hotel’s developer.
“As of today our goal is to open the hotel on time Nov. 1,” the developer, Robert Habeeb, CEO of Maverick Hotels, Restaurants, told the Tribune at the time.
Now, in the latest blow to the Chicago area’s reeling hotel market, the opening of the 223-room hotel has been put off until March “because of the relentless nature of COVID and the market is in the doldrums," Habeeb said Monday.
Asked if a March 1 hotel opening was unrealistic, given the current COVID surge, Habeeb said: “We’re hoping that, by then, there’s going to be medicine and vaccines. We have to open. We can’t stay closed forever.”
The hotel’s website, which said Monday that bookings are available for April 1 and beyond, will be changed to reflect the new opening date, he said.
Hotel occupancy in the Chicago metro area was 36.6% for the week ending Oct. 17, according to hotel industry market research firm STR. Last year, the figure was 84% for the week of Oct. 13-19.
In August, when officials announced the temporary closing of the pier, whose Ferris wheel and lakefront promenade have made it one of the Chicago’s top tourist attractions, they aimed to limit losses due to a lack of attendance. The pier, a not-for-profit entity, already was anticipating revenues falling $20 million short of projections.
It’s possible the closure, which originally was to last until April, could be extended, depending on the status of the pandemic.
“We’ve been targeting April [for reopening], but obviously we’ll keep an eye on what’s happening with the pandemic and, particularly, government restrictions,” Marilyn Kelly Gardner, president and CEO of Navy Pier, said Monday.
The pier could reopen in phases, she said.
The postponement of the hotel’s opening mark the latest setback for the city’s hospitality industry.
In August, the owner of the historic Palmer House Hilton, New York-based Thor Equities, was sued for almost $338 million in missed loan payments, in the largest Chicago foreclosure case to emerge from the pandemic.
At Willis Tower, the Skydeck observation area on the 103rd floor is open just three days a week instead of the usual seven.
The Sable operates under the Curio Collection by Hilton umbrella.
Designed by Chicago’s Koo architects, the hotel has been built atop an existing structure near the pier’s east end. Its name honors a World War II training ship, an aircraft carrier, that docked at Navy Pier.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @BlairKamin
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