One of downtown Cleveland’s workhorse hotels has gone dark, and the ripple effects are already being felt from convention planners to budget travelers. The 17-story DoubleTree by Hilton Cleveland Downtown closed at the end of January, taking roughly 379 rooms out of circulation, eliminating 66 jobs and tightening an already competitive lodging market. City officials and hotel analysts say downtown can probably absorb the hit, but the loss trims options for conventions, sports groups and midscale visitors who want to stay close to the action without paying luxury prices.
The operator filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification this month announcing a permanent shutdown and staff layoffs, and bookings at the Lakeside Avenue property stopped after Jan. 27. The move affects the 379-room hotel at 1111 East Lakeside Ave. and its employees, according to Hotel-Online.
The closure pulls about 379 rooms out of downtown’s inventory, roughly 6% of the neighborhood’s hotel stock and about a 12% hit to the midscale tier, in a market that counted 27 downtown hotels and 5,769 rooms last year. Cleveland.com also reports that the DoubleTree was targeted in a May 2025 lawsuit by the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission over alleged poor conditions, a case that was dismissed in September 2025.
The property has been in foreclosure since 2020, and a planned sale fell apart late last year after a buyer missed multiple deadlines, leaving the loan in special servicing and a court-appointed receiver in charge of marketing the asset. Service reports filed by the receiver show operating revenue tumbling through 2025 and the hotel’s valuation dropping sharply, developments that pushed the shutdown and are expected to leave investors with substantial losses, according to CoStar.
What Planners And Developers Say
City and industry officials say they can shuffle most group business to other downtown properties, but they acknowledge the DoubleTree’s demise tightens capacity for certain bookings, especially in the midscale range. Laurel Keller of CBRE notes that closures often happen when older hotels need major renovations that no longer pencil out financially, while Eric Hansen of LW Hospitality Advisors described the DoubleTree’s exit as a meaningful contraction for the midscale segment, as reported by Cleveland.com. The chief sales officer at Destination Cleveland said the organization believes its partners can still accommodate groups, and developers behind the proposed Tower at Erieview W hotel say that project could bring new downtown rooms online in about two years.
Next Steps For The Building
The building is being marketed for sale as a receivership offering, with brokers flagging the loan exposure and expecting interested bidders to step up with offers, local reporting shows. Industry consultants say potential reuse options range from another hotel to apartments or senior housing, and the ultimate plan will likely depend on whether a buyer is willing to commit to a full renovation of the aging property. For more on the shutdown and its local impact, see coverage from WFMJ and this look at the hotel’s financial struggles and layoffs.
