The developer that transformed the landmark 17-story Chicago Motor Club building into a Hampton Inn is looking to sell. Chicago-based Murphy Development Group has hired brokerage Berkadia Hotels & Hospitality to sell the 143-room Hampton Inn Chicago Downtown at 68 E. Wacker Place in the Loop. No asking price has been listed.
Murphy bought the historic art deco building in 2013 for USD$9.5 million from a lender that had seized the property two years earlier, after the previous owner defaulted on its loan. The Holabird & Root-designed building originally opened in 1928 as the headquarters of the Chicago Motor Club, an early affiliate of the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Murphy, which has redeveloped a series of vintage downtown buildings into hotels over the past decade, took out a $25.5 million loan in 2014, according to Cook County property records, then set out to redevelop the building into a hotel. The Hampton Inn opened in 2015, and Murphy most recently refinanced the property with a $20 million loan in late 2020.
Murphy included several homages to the building’s past with its renovation, including the display of a 1928 Ford Model A and maintaining a large map of the United States, both of which overlook the lobby.
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