Five Seasons Hotel may re-open without a brand name

The Crowne Plaza name is now gone from the downtown Five Seasons Hotel, which the city now owns and has closed until late 2012 for a $20-million-plus renovation and face-lift.

This week, John Frew, the project manager for the city's $100-million-plus Convention Complex and hotel renovation project, said it is unclear just what name brand might replace the Crowne Plaza brand on the hotel.

In fact, no brand name may appear on the hotel once it reopens, Frew said.

He pointed to The Chattanoogan, a city-owned hotel and conference center in Chattanooga, Tenn., that he said operates without a brand name like Sheraton, Hilton, Radisson or some other nationally recognizable name.

Cassie Willis, City Hall's spokeswoman, on Thursday said the city is expected to issue a request for qualifications today (Thursday)  to gauge the interest 0n managing the city's Five Seasons Hotel.

Frew said this week that some firms who may compete to manage the city's hotel may have the ability to provide one of a few different brand names for the hotel.

“We've heard a lot of interest,” Frew said. But he added that The Drake Hotel in Chicago doesn't have a national brand name, nor does the Hotel Julien Dubuque in Dubuque.

As for Chattanooga, a story last July in the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that the city of Chattanooga borrowed $129.2 million in 2000 to build the Chattanoogan hotel, the Development Resource Center and a downtown parking garage and to expand the city's Trade and Convention Center.

The Chattanoogan is now showing an operating profit, although it doesn't pay for its debt, the news story stated. The city, it added, is trying to sell the 200-room luxury hotel and conference center for $30.3 million.

The city of Cedar Rapids paid $3.2 million to buy the Five Seasons Hotel from its creditors and plans a $20-million-plus renovation so the hotel, which opened in 1979, better complements the city's coming new convention center and the U.S. Cellular Center arena, which also is to be renovated. The city also is planning to build a new parking ramp as part of the project.

In the 2010 Census, Chattanooga's population surpassed 167,000. Cedar Rapids' is 126,326.