US hotel group Kimpton Hotels has opened its third New York City hotel, with its first green certified property due to open in October in Philadelphia. Other openings include Washington, Miami, Philadelphia and Chicago.
New York’s Ink48 hotel is located in a former printing house in Times Square. When fully complete, Ink48 will have 222 rooms and suites, as well as a fitness centre and spa. Some work is yet to be completed on the property, with two restaurants and a presidential suite due to open in early 2010, but guests can take advantage of reduced rates on rooms until then.
Kimpton has also opened the 202-room Hotel Monaco Baltimore in Washington, in the former headquarters of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The hotel offers goldfish "to keep travellers company during their stay", as well as “Tall Rooms” for tall people, with high ceilings, extra long king-size beds, raised showerheads and extra long dressing gowns. Sister property Hotel Monaco in Washington DC has also been recently renovated.
This summer also saw the opening of Kimpton’s first hotel in Miami, Epic hotel, with 411 rooms and a waterfront location with a private marina, seven miles from Miami International Airport. It has a Mediterranean-influenced restaurant, a spa, fitness centre and a 13,752 square-foot wrap-around pool deck with two swimming pools. Epic hotel also has 11,000 sq ft of meeting and event space.
Other openings from Kimpton include properties in Philadephia and Chicago. Hotel Palomar Philadelphia will open in October in the city’s Rittenhouse Square neighbourhood and will have 230 rooms, including 19 spa suites. It will also be Kimpton’s first green certified hotel, as the first in the group to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accreditation form the US Green Building Council.
The hotel will feature 6,000 square feet of meeting space, including the 2,750 square foot penthouse ballroom on the 25th floor, three adaptable meeting rooms on the 24th floor and a 12-person high-tech boardroom on the second floor.
Hotel Palomar Philadelphia will be followed by Hotel Palomar Chicago in January, Kimpton’s fourth property in the city. Located in downtown Chicago, it will have 260 rooms, including 43 suites, as well as meeting facilities for up to 300 people, a pool and terrace with views of the Chicago skyline, and a 17th floor fitness centre.
Founded in 1981, Kimpton Hotels owns or manages almost 50 hotels across the country, and claims to have been the first hotel company to bring the boutique hotel concept to the US.
Visit kimptonhotels.com
Report by Sara Turner
