By Wagstaff Worldwide
Oxford Hotels & Resorts, LLC, the Chicago-based hotel management and branding affiliate of Oxford Capital Group, LLC, announces the opening of Hotel Julian Chicago in fall 2018. The Oxford Capital Group and Quadrum Global partnership led the redevelopment and adaptive re-use hotel conversion of the historic Atlantic Bank Building at 168 North Michigan Avenue. This project is the flagship property of Oxford’s latest luxury lifestyle hotel brand named after St. Julian, the patron saint of hospitality and travelers, this new destination infuses the vibrant North Michigan Avenue-Millennium Park hotel market with a stylish new addition.
Situated diagonally across from Millennium Park on North Michigan Avenue on the eastern side of the central business district, the $75+ million development is preserving many of the original components of the iconic Benjamin Marshall-designed building in the new hotel design to create a striking contrast of old and new. The brick walls in the hotel lobby and restaurant contain the original 100-year-old bricks.
“Located just steps from many of Chicago’s most prominent attractions – including Millennium Park, the Cultural Mile, Navy Pier, and the Riverwalk – Hotel Julian brings together the city’s celebrated architecture, compelling history, and cultural refinement,” says John W. Rutledge, founder, president, and chief executive officer of Oxford Hotels & Resorts, LLC and its parent company, Oxford Capital Group, LLC. “We consider Hotel Julian an ‘original remix,’ synchronizing some of Benjamin Marshall’s original classical elements with a distinctive contemporary five-story addition, while presenting a modern take on the luxury lifestyle hotel experience.”
A rendering of the Hotel Julian front desk
Each of the 218 spacious and contemporary guestrooms offers stunning views of Millennium Park, the lake, and the city. The hotel offers a state-of-the-art, 24-hour fitness center with a Peloton Bike, TRX System, Star Trac Recumbent Bike, and Nautilus Strength Circuit Training Equipment, in addition to About Last Knife, Oxford’s latest chef-driven food and beverage concept/venue. Offering indoor and outdoor seating, About Last Knife features a modern take on the classic steakhouse alongside a progressive beverage program.
Luxury and comfort are of utmost importance to Hotel Julian. The interiors of the hotel rooms are designed by The Gettys Group to provide contemporary, yet elegant accommodations. Rooms include complimentary Wi-Fi, generously high ceilings, Frette linen and robes, PañPuri bath products, an espresso machine, SmartFridge, Samsung 55” SMART Television, and smart thermostat. Guestrooms on the top five floors feature floor-to-ceiling customized windows offering sweeping views of the city below.
“I’m honored to be a part of the Hotel Julian opening team,” said Luda Chervona, Area General Manager for Hotel Julian Chicago. “The hotel brings together the best aspects of the city and is truly where the Magnificent Mile meets the Cultural Mile. We are delighted to introduce Oxford’s latest luxury lifestyle hotel to North Michigan Avenue/Millennium Park and look forward to welcoming guests to a one-of-a-kind destination.”
The building at 168 North Michigan Avenue was designed by the renowned architectural firm Marshall & Fox, architects of such iconic properties as The Drake, The Blackstone, The Edgewater Beach Hotel & Apartments, and several prominent Chicago buildings on North and East Lake Shore Drive. Restoring the building’s historic terra cotta façade,while seamlessly integrating modern design elements, has given the Hotel Julian its inimitable appearance. The Hirsch Associates, LLC design affixes a five-story addition on top of the existing structure enclosed in a faceted glass curtain wall, which is brought down through the terra cotta façade to the base of the building.
A rendering of About Last Knife
At ground level, a two-story façade with a folding glass wall set within a terra cotta portal opens to About Last Knife and the lobby to Michigan Avenue. A second western entrance, located on Garland Court, leads to the building’s contemporary lobby and allows easy car drop-off and pick-up of hotel guests.
Hotel Julian is a joint venture development between Oxford Capital Group and Quadrum Global. To learn more about Hotel Julian, please visit www.hoteljulianchicago.com.
About Oxford Capital Group, LLC and Oxford Hotels & Resorts, LLC
Oxford Capital Group, LLC is a national real estate investment, development and management firm. Oxford Hotels and Resorts, LLC is its wholly owned hotel operating affiliate. Oxford, its affiliates, and principals have been involved in approximately $3 billion of real estate and private equity investments, including approximately 13,000 hotel rooms and over 2,000 senior housing units. The firm’s primary areas of focus are hospitality, mixed-use, senior housing, multifamily, urban retail, parking, and other operationally intensive forms of real estate. This includes health, fitness, spa, athletic and sports/entertainment destination clubs, and entertainment destination outlets including hotel rooftop venues. Oxford’s geographic focus includes the nation’s top cities, such as Chicago, New York City, metro Washington D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other select markets with unique attributes including Charleston, SC, New Orleans, LA, and a variety of markets throughout Florida. In addition to such national projects as Hotel Lexington NYC, The Metropolitan Hotel NYC, The National Conference Center in Northern Virginia, The Godfrey Hotel Boston, and The Godfrey Hotel Hollywood, Hotel Julian is Oxford’s 13th hotel project in the Chicagoland market. These have included such award-winning developments as LondonHouse, The Langham, The Godfrey, Hotel Felix, Hotel Essex, Hyatt Magnificent Mile, Hotel Cass, Hotel Versey, Renaissance Chicago-North Shore, Doubletree North Shore Hotel and Conference Center, Hyatt House Chicago-Northwest, and Claridge House. Its growing hospitality brand collection includes ALK, The Godfrey Hotel & Cabanas, Cass, Essex, SX, Felix, Godfrey, I|O, LondonHouse, LH, Julian, WTR Pool & Grill, and SpaBoutique. For information, visit www.oxford-capital.com or www.ohrllc.com
About Quadrum Global
Quadrum Global is a global real estate investment and development firm focused on value-add opportunities. Through its network of six offices and affiliates worldwide, the firm is currently targeting value-add opportunities mainly in the U.S. and the U.K. Since 2009, the group has committed over $1 billion in capital to real estate investments in the US and grown its total portfolio to $2 billion. For more information, visit www.quadrumglobal.com.
