May 16–When the Chase Park Plaza is taken over by its new Boston-based owners later this summer, it will still be called the Chase Park Plaza.
"That name is iconic. We have no intention of getting rid of that name," said John G. Murray, president and chief operating officer of Hospitality Properties Trust.
HPT agreed in March to buy the famous hotel from Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I Inc. for $94 million.
The St. Louis Business Journal on Monday reported that a name change was forthcoming and cited a filing May 10 that HPT made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"That's really not accurate," Murray said of the media report on the name change.
Murray noted that his company will contract with Sonesta International Hotels Corp., also of Boston, to manage the hotel. He said there will be some branding tie-ins between that company and the Chase.
"Things like letterhead and such will probably say something like 'a Sonesta hotel,' and we'll probably have a marble plaque on the building that says that as well," he said.
"But we're not trying to confuse anyone," Murray said. "We're still calling it the Chase Park Plaza."
The Chase Park Plaza complex — composed of both the 11-story hotel and the 29-story Park Plaza Tower — contains hotel rooms, corporate apartments, condominiums, meeting rooms, restaurants, bars and a movie theater.
The hotel, originally the Chase & Chester Apartments, was built in 1922; The Park Plaza tower was constructed in 1931.
