The ornate red brick of the Schofield Building, hidden behind a 1960’s facade, makes once again the statement on the corner of East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue that it did when it opened in 1901.
"If you talk to anybody in downtown Cleveland that works down here and they saw this scaffolding up for a long time a lot of those folks didn't even know that this facade existed," said Jeff Andrews, director of sales and marketing for the new Schofield Kimpton Hotel.
“We’re very close to opening--at this point March 8 is our scheduled date,” Andrews said. “The hard hats are gone, all of our department heads have been hired, all of line staff’s been hired we’re in a training mode for those folks.”
The conversion of the former office building into a boutique hotel took several years to complete. In addition to the 122 hotel rooms the building will house 52 apartments.
“The hotel goes up seven stories, eight through 14 are apartments,” Andrews said. “They range from a junior one bedroom exec all the way through a three bedroom two and a half bath. As of today three-fourths of those are leased out."
A restaurant, Parker’s Downtown, will be opening on the ground floor and offer room service not only to the hotel guests but the apartments above.
The hotel rooms, like the building itself, are unique offering different sizes and amenities, many with walk in showers that are big enough to also house antique claw tubs.
The building, which opened in 1901, was designed by Levi Schofield, the architect and sculptor behind the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on Public Square which some of the corner rooms offer views of down Euclid Avenue.
“Every Kimpton is custom designed, none of them look alike so the neat thing is nothing is cookie cutter, nothing’s out of the catalog, we look at what that market should reflect and we have little nods to Cleveland, little nods to Levi Schofield and the building,” Andrews said.
The lobby in Kimpton Hotel vernacular is the living room, a place where guests can gather and relax and take part in their signature complimentary daily wine hour.
Andrews said this takes Cleveland to a new level in the eyes of those looking for something different.
“You don't just have the main brands in this city, you have boutique hotels, you have historical hotels, you have big convention hotels and just by looking at that the meeting planner, the convention planner gets another perception of Cleveland that they do have diverse offerings,” he said.
