Chicago’s 1,205-room Marriott Marquis and Wintrust Arena on track for 2017 opening

Crews working on the largest Chicago hotel project in years have hoisted the final piece of the upcoming Marriott Marquis’ structural steel into place, effectively “topping off” the 39-story hotel. When it opens this summer, the dark blue tower will deliver a staggering 1,205 guest rooms to the recently rebranded McCormick Square entertainment and hospitality district flanking the McCormick Place convention center.

According to the hotel’s official website, the Marriott Marquis Chicago will feature a large ground floor restaurant/food court and a pair of 25,000-square-foot ballrooms for a total of 90,000 square feet of meeting space. An indoor/outdoor rooftop bar on the eastern setback of the tower’s 33rd floor is also rumored to have been added to the mix.

The complicated project’s initial design came from Gensler and Anderson/Miller. The design-build team was then led by Clark Construction in collaboration with Goettsch Partners and Simeone Deary Design Group.

Grid View

The high-rise hotel will be bolstered by the new 10,387-seat, Wintrust Arena which is under construction to the blue-tinted tower’s immediate west. Expected to open this fall, the ravioli-shaped stadium and convention space comes from star architect César Pelli’s firm of Pelli Clarke Pelli.

Despite dwindling attendance numbers among Blue Demon fans, the new facility will be the permanent home of DePaul University’s basketball program. The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority-backed project was granted $55 million in controversial Tax Increment Financing (TIF) from the city of Chicago.

The Marriott/Wintrust complex will eventually be joined by a 22-story, 466-room, 3-flag hotel project from developer-builder McHugh which broke ground at 123 E. Cermak this winter. A third brand new McCormick Square hotel development from Draper & Kramer is in the works for the northeast corner of Cermak and Wabash, just steps from the Green Line.

• Under-construction McCormick Place arena and hotel taking shape [Curbed Chicago]
• Basketball attendance sinking as DePaul heads downtown [Crain’s]
• Wintrust Financial signs naming rights deal for new McCormick Place arena [Curbed Chicago]