South Korea’s largest luxury hotel chain is introducing a new brand to the U.S. and picked Chicago as the home of its flagship property.
Seoul-based Lotte Hotels & Resorts is holding a grand opening Thursday for L7 Chicago by Lotte, the company’s first L7-branded hotel in the U.S. It’s the third Lotte property in the U.S., with the other two hotels in New York and Seattle.
Chicago was chosen because of its central location in the U.S. and its status as a world-class destination city, according to L7 Chicago General Manager Adam Gurgiolo.
The L7 brand is a lifestyle hotel designed “to bring new experiences and inspiration to culture creators and millennials,” according to Lotte’s website.
In-room amenities include Nespresso machines, Molekule air purifiers and wellness baskets — complete with yoga mats, light weights, stretch bands and massage balls.
The property — with an interior color scheme of blue, green and teal — replaces the former Kimpton Hotel Monaco Chicago at 225 N. Wabash Ave. The building sold for $36 million in January 2022, property records show. Like Kimpton, the new hotel has 191 rooms.
Throughout its transition, the 14-story hotel never fully closed, said Kathleen Arnold, project manager at Chicago-based McHugh Construction. The company was the general contractor while New York-based firm AvroKO was the designer.
Arnold said McHugh used a “waterfall effect” approach, where construction work started on the top floor then worked its way down.
The more than century-old building was formerly a hat factory and still includes some of its original quirks — like a gentle upward slope on the ground floor and a basement attic, where newly installed ductwork was hidden.
“It’s a very unique building, but that’s kind of part of the fun,” Arnold said.
Each room was renovated as well as the lobby. And a restaurant space was built out on the ground floor to welcome the second outpost of West Loop’s Korean restaurant Perilla. The restaurant is expected to open later this summer and will offer diners “a new take on the classic Chicago steakhouse with its Korean BBQ experience,” Gurgiolo said in an emailed statement.
McHugh started work on the lobby and restaurant in late August 2023. Work on the hotel rooms started November 2023 and finished in March. Some parts of the property, like the lobby, were a complete gut job. Old tile flooring was torn out and replaced with wood, and the fireplace was expanded with teal tiles that extend to the ceiling, Arnold said.
Lotte Hotels & Resorts is the hospitality branch of Lotte Corp., a multinational conglomerate covering industries such as retail, food, manufacturing and tourism.