The new Hilton Cleveland Downtown is scheduled to open Wednesday. The 32-story, county-owned hotel is next to the convention center and was planned as an important part of the city’s growing tourist and convention business.
Construction of the new Hilton was funded mostly through the Cuyahoga County sales tax increase, which went into effect in 2007 to build the convention center. County officials say the hotel’s construction has come in $20 million under its $276 million budget. The Hilton’s general manager, Teri Agosta, says the hotel and the convention center work together.
“I think the hotel itself has also managed to do a really good job of blending business and leisure. It’s such an artistically beautiful hotel with a lot of original art, and (it) just flows very nicely with some beautiful restaurants and grab-and-goes that sometimes you don’t even fell like you’re there for business.”
The 600-room hotel will employ 370 people, most of them from the local area. It’s one of a half-dozen new hotels in the city and dozens that have opened in Northeast Ohio in the last year.
