A $30 million renovation of the Hyatt Regency Bethesda hotel is set to start this month.
Selim Soliman, managing director of the hotel, said Monday the renovation and remodeling will start with the 22,000 square feet of the hotel’s downstairs conference rooms and meeting spaces.
New finishes, lighting and flooring will be installed in each of the hotel’s 390 rooms on a floor-by-floor basis throughout the year. The hotel’s main elevators and lobby will also be remodeled.
“It’s obviously been a landmark for this area, for Bethesda, and it’s going to be an epicenter when we’re finished with it,” Soliman said.
The Meridian Group, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate investment firm, reacquired the 12-story building at 7400 Wisconsin Ave. for an undisclosed price last May with plans for the renovation.
The Meridian Group owned at least a stake in the hotel from 1999 to 2010 before the property was sold for $106 million at a foreclosure auction in August 2012. The developer also owned 3 Bethesda Metro Center, a neighboring 17-story office building, until 2011.
As part of last year’s reacquisition, Highgate Hotels took over management of the hotel from Hyatt Hotels Corp. on Friday.
Soliman said the Hyatt name will remain.
The only structural changes involved in the renovation will come as the result of a new 3,500-square-foot retail space to be added late this year to the first floor of the building near The Daily Grill and facing the Bethesda Metro station.
The hotel is open to retail shops, cafes or artisan coffee shops taking over the space. Morton’s The Steakhouse occupies another of the hotel’s ground-floor commercial spaces.
