Hotel Elkhart project lands top restoration award
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Indiana Landmarks has awarded the state’s top restoration prize to 500 Main LLC, the group behind the $23 million revitalization of Hotel Elkhart.
The Cook Cup for Outstanding Restoration is awarded annually “to the property owner who follows the highest standards of restoration in transforming a significant historic building, with positive impact on the neighborhood or community.”
Hotel Elkhart was built in 1923 but closed as a hotel in the 1970s and was later used for office space and senior living. The hotel welcomed a number celebrities during its heyday and served as the backdrop for Robert Kennedy’s 1968 Indiana primary campaign, Indiana Landmarks said.
Mishawaka-based Cressy Commercial Real Estate and Mno-Bmadsen, the non-gaming investment arm of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, first announced plans for the building’s restoration in 2017, and ground was broken the following year.
The project was completed in 2021 as a boutique hotel that is part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection of hotels, featuring 93 guest rooms, two restaurants, a ballroom, meeting space, and a rooftop bar.
“To see how the community has embraced this property affirms the investment to return it to vibrant use as a boutique hotel,” Project Manager Dan Boecher said in a news release. “To be recognized by Indiana Landmarks in this way as folks who really know historic renovation and adaptive reuse is a stamp of approval for our efforts.”
The project received funding from the city of Elkhart, the state’s Regional Cities Initiative, the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, and Federal Historic Tax Credits.
Indiana Landmarks created the Cook Cup for Outstanding Restoration in 2007, with the first award being presented to the award’s namesake family in honor of its transformation of the West Baden and French Lick Springs hotels in southern Indiana.