City Council approves hotel tower at 6402 S. Stony Island

The Chicago City Council has approved a planned hotel tower development at 6402 S. Stony Island. Located near the Obama Presidential Center, the project site is a vacant lot at the southwest corner of S. Stony Island Ave and E. 64th St. Aquinnah Investment Trust is leading the development.

Designed by Stantec, the 26-story hotel tower is expected to stand 316 feet in height and provide 250 hotel rooms, office space, hotel support spaces, and 118 parking spaces.

The building’s ground floor will have the hotel lobby stretching along the S. Stony Island Ave frontage with a vehicular access drive that comes off the street for drop-offs. Loading access will be off of E. 64th St with parking access via a ramp at the south end of the building’s frontage along S. Stony Island Ave. The majority of the ground floor will be occupied by back of house space. 

The building’s podium will include three floors of parking for the project, with an amenity deck on top of it on the fifth floor. An outdoor terrace, cabanas, swimming pool, pergola with grills, and bar seating will all be included on the amenity deck. 

Hotel floors in the tower are expected to include 13-14 rooms per floor in a rectangular bar footprint rising above the podium. An upper amenity deck will be located on the 13th floor with an outdoor terrace and green roof separating the hotel floors within the tower. The penthouse level at the top of the tower will have an outdoor terrace for hotel guests.

With City Council approval secured, the site will be rezoned from B3-5 to a Planned Development. The developer can now focus on securing funding for the $100 million project, completing design and permitting, and then ultimately commencing construction.