As one Hyde Park hotel prepares to dig-in, a second is planned nearby

True to the developers’ word to begin construction shortly, a seven-story boutique hotel slated for Chicago’s Hyde Park is moving closer to reality. This week, the joint project from Olympia Companies and Smart Hotels received a demolition permit to wreck and remove an unremarkable two-story building standing in the new development’s way near the corner of 53rd Street and Dorchester Avenue.

Designed by Chicago-based architecture firm GREC, the unnamed hotel will contain 100 guest rooms, a ground floor restaurant and lounge, and a green roof. The 53rd Street location is a good fit for such a project considering the newly-opened nearby Vue53 apartments as well as a proposed 27-story residential tower slated for the street’s 1600 block.

Keen to get-in the south side neighborhood’s emerging hospitality scene, the University of Chicago is hoping to add a boutique hotel of its own several blocks south at the intersection of Dorchester and 60th. According to DNAinfo, the U of C officials are seeking an operator that would be interested in taking over the Hyde Park Day School building in just such a capacity.

A likely fit would be Hospitality 3 and its “Study Hotel” brand. Featuring old-school decor drawing inspiration from its respective college campus, The Study opened its first location at Yale and a second University City establishment serving both Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.

ABC 7 Chicago reported earlier this month that a third location was indeed in the works for Hyde Park’s University of Chicago.

• Demolition permit at 1401 E. 53rd Street [Chicago Cityscape]
• Hyde Park boutique hotel project inches closer towards breaking ground [Curbed Chicago]
• U. of C. Considering Replacing Old Hyde Park Day School With Hotel [DNAinfo]
• Upscale ‘Study Hotels’ Popping up at Colleges; Chicago Next [ABC 7 Chicago]