As Lexington’s hotel competition heats up, downtown Hilton plans $8 million renovation

Hilton Lexington Downtown this week announced an $8 million dollar renovation that was motivated in part by competition from new hotels at City Center and in other areas of Lexington, General Manager Alex Lugo said.

“Our hotel was just in the natural cycle of renovation. Generally, hotels renovate their product every seven to ten years,” Lugo said. “But obviously with the hotels opening up not only in the downtown market but (elsewhere in Fayette County) we wanted to ensure that our product was fresh and really competing with all the new product coming on line.”

The 218-room City Center Marriott Hotel and the 119-room Residence Inn opened in December. The Griffin Gate Marriott on Newtown Pike, which sold in December, also will undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation over the next few years. A new Origin boutique hotel opened at The Summit last fall and the venerable Gratz Park boutique hotel was renovated a year ago and is now The Sire, a Hilton Tapestry Collection property.

Lugo said at the Hilton, an all new Crossroads Cafe will open offering barista-made beverages, paninis, breakfast items, sandwiches and salads and a new Crossroads Lounge will be built. Guest rooms will be renovated with locally inspired decor and three additional guest rooms built for a total of 369 to correspond with the hotel’s 369 Vine Street address.

The existing Triangle Grille will be upgraded as well as the Bigg Blue Martini Bar, which will expand into the lobby.

The hotel is donating the lobby’s centerpiece horse statues to the UK Children’s Hospital and the lobby will be transformed into a living room experience.

“It was a great community opportunity for us,” he said.

The hotel is transforming one floor at a time to minimize the impact on guests and whenever possible, leaving the floors above and below as a buffer.

Lugo said the goal is for the renovations to be complete before the spring meet at Keeneland which begins April 2.

The hotel was built in 1982 and Hilton last renovated the property in 2010 when it took ownership of the Radisson hotel, Lugo said. A minor upgrade took place in 2015, he said.

This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 4:44 PM.