Downtown Baltimore to Have a Bit of Monaco - The Hotel

The Baltimore Sun reported this morning that one of City Center's finest old buildings has been sold. The real estate closing was yesterday for the $20-million-dollar sale of the 1906 headquarters of B&O Railroad located on the corner of Charles and Baltimore Streets.

The historic building will reopen in 2009 with the top floors becoming a Monaco Hotel managed and operated by Kimpton. Washington DC has a fine Monaco by Kimpton. So does Chicago and San Francisco. There's a Monaco in Salt Lake City and Seattle.

It seems that it's Baltimore's turn to have a brand new (in a century-old, classic space) boutique hotel.

ARCWheeler, the Philadelphia-based developer, has marked the middle floors as office and the ground floors for retail and restaurant use. I'm liking this concept.

Kimpton's Monaco-branded hotels are smart, sassy, and requested by high profile performing artists visiting cities where Monaco Hotels are located.

ARCWheeler's website speaks highly of their purchase:

"This 225,000 SF, $55-million mixed-use development will reside in the regal Beaux-Arts style B&O Building in Baltimore which was designed by noted architect James Gamble Rogers."

They go on to say:

"The B&O building will represent the first of ARCWheeler's "10" boutique hotel brand, which will include hotel, office and retail space, and be located in buildings of grandeur in prime locations. This historic 13-story building, built in 1906 as the headquarters for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, includes marble floors and staircases, cobalt-blue stained glass windows and high vaulted ceilings."

It's also promised that the developer will return the huge marble lobby, with dual staircases, to it's origional 1906 glory.