Covid Chronicles. Chapter 109: Nearly a year into the pandemic, Chicago's Palmer House hotel remains closed

 

Read chapter 108 here

Photo by Retiring Guy

March 2, 2021

At the end of the tour, we were 6 blocks from the Palmer House. During a weekend Chicago visit with Ron and Margaret two years ago, we had after-dinner drinks in the hotel’s spacious lobby bar. (Shown below.) As we approached the main entrance, the marquee lights ablaze, we were surprised to find the doors locked. We saw no signage clearly indicating that the hotel was closed. 

USA Today

“Maybe one of the other entrances is open,” I suggested. 

The 25-story building contains 1,641 guest rooms and takes up most of a city block. 

Same stunning result. 

But then maybe not so stunning, I reconsidered. The Palmer House is primarily a convention and special events hotel, not a sustainable business plan in the Age of Covid. In fact, the hotel has been closed since last March, and some accounts I just read indicate that it may not reopen. Financially, it’s ‘underwater’, i.e., its outstanding loans exceed its current valuation. How sad! This would be a huge loss for Chicago, as the Palmer House provides one of the major strands of the Loop’s history. The original building was constructed in 1875, and the current building was constructed on the same site in 1925.