Though its owners hope the Hotel Orrington will have guest rooms ready in time for Northwestern’s June 18 commencement, hotel officials are saying they have no firm schedule for the reopening, and NU is assuming the hotel will not be ready.
“The hotel is very committed to getting open as soon as it possibly can,” hotel spokeswoman Susan Stoga said.
Greenfield Partners LLC purchased the old Omni Orrington Hotel, 1710 Orrington Ave., last February with the intention of renovating the building. The hotel closed Jan. 2 to undergo a $22-million remodeling project, which includes upgrading guest rooms, adding a new restaurant and building a business conference center.
A variety of issues make it difficult to firmly predict when the renovations will be finished, Stoga said.
“The whole issue is construction permits and processes,” she said. “That could go really fast, that could go really slow.”
The Orrington’s age further complicates the process.
“You just never know what you’re going to run into,” Stoga said. “If you build a new home from the ground up, it’s easy. If you try to rehabilitate an existing building, it’s just challenging.”
NU Special Events Assistant Sheila Dworak said her office assumes the hotel will not be available for use by commencement. But she doesn’t believe most families will be affected by the hotel’s status.
“By this time most people have made their plans,” Dworak said.
Likewise, her office did not include the Hotel Orrington in a list of local hotels sent to seniors’ parents in November.
The uncertainty has prompted representatives from the hotel to advise some guests who planned to use its facilities to make alternate arrangements.
Rebecca Zimoch, 23, of Oak Park, Ill., planned to hold her July 24 wedding reception at the hotel, but an Orrington corporate catering manager contacted her Tuesday to inform her that the facility would not be ready.
When she made her plans last July, the hotel staff did not mention any intentions to remodel, said Zimoch, Medill ’02.
“We didn’t know renovations were being planned,” she said.
Stoga said final plans for the remodeling weren’t completed and announced until October.
“The whole process can take quite a while,” said Stoga, noting that the hotel needed to obtain permits and approvals from Evanston City Council and other agencies.
Zimoch said she learned in late December that the hotel was going to close, but when her mother called the hotel, she was told the renovations would be done by July.
Guests already had received their room confirmation numbers when Zimoch was told her reception needed to be relocated, she said.
Although Zimoch said the hotel has been helpful with relocating her party, she remains unsure of how the situation will be resolved.
Stoga said she was aware of only two events which needed to be rescheduled: Zimoch’s wedding and another event planned for early August.
If the hotel does not open in time for commencement, the delay could hurt Evanston’s downtown businesses, said Dick Peach, president of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce.
Peach said he hopes the hotel can accommodate university guests, because Evanston businesses get a significant boost from commencement events.
“It’s one of those weekends that the restaurants and everyone count on,” Peach said.
