Crowne Plaza Hotel will close this week

CEDAR RAPIDS - The last guests at the downtown Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel will check out at noon Thursday, the hotel will close until November 2012 for renovation and the signs outside it will come down. The hotel will no longer bear the name, Crowne Plaza, John Frew, the project manager for the city's Convention Complex project, told the City Council last night.

On March 7, Frew reported that the city takes ownership of the hotel, and on that day, the one-block stretch of Third Street NE will permanently close to make way for the construction of the city's new convention center next to the hotel and U.S. Cellular Center arena.

Sometime between March 7 and March 21, demolition crews will begin taking down the hotel's ballroom above what is now Third Street NE and the parking garages and the office buildings in the block between Second and Third streets NE and First and A avenues NE. By August, only The Roosevelt, the former hotel and now an apartment complex, will be left standing in the block. Groundbreaking for the convention center, which will share the block with The Roosevelt, is slated for that month.

Frew said he would be back in front of the council on Feb. 22 to discuss “a series of possible options” related to the ownership of the hotel. The city bought the hotel from its creditors in November with plans to renovate it along with the Convention Complex project.

On Feb. 22, Frew said he also will talk to the council about building a new parking ramp to serve the Convention Complex.