New management now, new sign soon for Hotel 71

You may start calling it ‘Wyndham’

(Left) Over the past seven months, the 39-story Hotel 71, seen here from the northwest in 2007, has been turned into a Wyndham hotel. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

17-Jun-13 – There is still work to do, and a new sign to install at the top, but Hotel 71 has officially opened as the Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront.

Wyndham Hotel Group made the announcement last Wednesday. The company has managed the 334-room hotel since last November when it was purchased by Hospitality Properties Trust for $85 million.

The hotel did a “soft opening” on June 12. There will be a new sign at the top of the hotel, replacing the “Hotel 71” sign, but what it will look like, when and how it will be installed are still being discussed, according to Katherine Kowalski, the Wyndham’s marketing manager.

Based in Parsippany, New Jersey, Wyndham Hotel Group operates 7,380 hotels in 66 countries. Its brands include Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Planet Hollywood, and Ramada. Wyndham president Jeff Wagoner called the former Hotel 71 a “sophisticated, city-center property” and said in a news release it is “a shining example of our commitment to provide best-in-class management services and bring the Wyndham brand to the key markets where people want to travel.”

A multi-million dollar renovation project has so far redesigned guestrooms and improved the hotel’s elevators. By the end of the year, the hotel plans to offer a 1,660 square foot outdoor terrace next to the current penthouse ballroom and a new 4,700 square foot Grand Ballroom on the seventh floor.

(Above) A rendering of the outdoor terrace planned for the roof of the new Wyndham. Image obtained from Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront.

The hotel will include 47 timeshare units, intended as vacation homes for multiple owners of each unit, that will be available later in the year.

When it was built in 1960, the hotel was originally known as Executive House. The name was changed to Hotel 71 in 2002 to reflect its address at 71 East Wacker Drive. The front of the hotel used to have recessed balconies until a renovation in the 1980s.