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Originally Posted by pj3000
Former Holiday Inn - Downtown Erie at W 18th & State/Peach streets undergoing full gut renovation (it needed it!). Likely to become a Wyndham brand and open in summer 2021.
This 133 room hotel was a major part of the massive urban redevelopment project in the late 1950s/early 1960s that leveled the entire neighborhood between State and Sassafras streets and 18th and the 14th Street RR overpass. The Holiday Inn with its restaurant/lounge and large outdoor pool was a popular spot back in the day, when Holiday Inns were kind of a thing.
It declined with the neighborhood and was given a 1980s makeover that enclosed the exterior hallways, and then an absolutely awful 1990s exterior "refresh" that tacked some crappy paneling on the facade. By that point, it was rather seedy and then was no longer a Holiday Inn; most recently known as the "Downtown Erie Hotel"... it had basically turned into a crack den/prostitution hotspot/heroin lounge. I was surprised to learn it was still an operating business a few years ago, since it looked abandoned. It closed in early 2019, though the rooms were reportedly filled with squatters who completely trashed the inside.
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Yeesh. Yeah,just a quick glance at a
google aerial view, makes it obvious that this thing needed a lot of TLC. It's interesting to me to see how these old Holiday Inn properties are either being demolished or restored across the country. Three Rivers, MI recently finished converting an old Holiday inn (complete with one of the vintage "holidomes") into new senior living. Kalamazoo's old Holiday Inn (again, with an indoor pool / holidome) was renovated into a Delta Hotel by Marriott about a year ago. Good to see this one getting new life too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
So the hotel is absolute god-awful, overly-busy, 8-colored ugliness, but the restaurant/bar looks very nice... especially for a Hampton Inn... which makes one wonder, why make such an investment in a restaurant that is part of a Hampton Inn?
The window wall that folds completely away is pretty damn cool. Not something you see often.
Oliver's Rooftop restaurant opens at the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel on Erie's bayfront
https://www.goerie.com/story/enterta...es/6311332002/
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Absolutely a perfect example of a space that is better to be inside of and look out of, as opposed to being outside of and looking at. The exterior is truly hideous.