NEW ORLEANS Six years after Hurricane Katrina blew out most of the windows of the 32-story hotel, Hyatt Regency New Orleans is preparing to reopen following a US$275 million rehab.
The 1,193-key hotel has set October 19 as its opening date, New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. “We’re going to open with a bang,” General Manager Michael Smith says. “We closed with a bang; we’re going to open with one. We’re the phoenix rising from the ashes.”
The hotel served as the makeshift city hall and hosted several first-responder organizations in the hurricane’s immediate aftermath, but it suffered substantial damage has remained dormant since.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts sold the property in 2007 to Poydras Properties Hotel Holdings for US$32 million—a paltry US$27,000 per key. Poydras in 2009 received US$225 million in low-cost bonds to help rehabilitate the hotel.
Upon reopening, the hotel will have added nine additional guestrooms and doubled its meeting space. It will contain two restaurants, including one with an as-yet-unnamed celebrity chef. The revolving rooftop restaurant is being replaced with a club lounge that overlooks the city and a fitness center that overlooks the Superdome and the New Orleans Arena.