The 165,000-square-foot Cincinnati Club building at 30 Garfield Place, once slated for 99 apartments, is now headed toward a very different future: a $55 million, 150-room boutique hotel under Marriott's lifestyle collection. Kansas City-based Sunflower Development Group is behind the pivot, with construction expected to begin next year.
The plan marks a significant reversal for Sunflower Development Group and its partner, Block Real Estate Services, which bought the 10-story building overlooking Piatt Park in late November 2021 for $4.35 million from Vulcan Property Management Co., according to the developer's own account cited by Local 12 News. Jason Swords, a founding partner of Sunflower Development Group, said construction on the hotel conversion is targeted to start next year, per the same report.
Just months ago, the project looked headed in a very different direction. In June 2025, the Ohio Department of Development awarded Sunflower Development Group $3.25 million in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits for a $49.2 million adaptive reuse plan that would have converted the upper floors into 99 market-rate apartments, according to state records distributed via GovDelivery. That tax credit round was part of a broader push: the 34th round awarded credits to 11 Cincinnati projects, the same records show.
A Landmark With Hollywood Credentials
The building itself carries plenty of history. Designed by prominent local architectural firm Garber & Woodward, the Cincinnati Club was constructed in 1924, according to the same state documentation.
The building has also had a brush with the big screen. Its interior served as a filming location for the “Ritz Towers” restaurant scene in the 2015 film Carol, according to Giggster. Today, the building's lower levels house event and banquet facilities operated by McHale's Events and Catering, which underwent a major interior renovation in 2018, according to the venue's own description.
Marriott's Boutique Play and a Corridor on the Rise
Under the new plan, the hotel would join Marriott's “Series by Marriott” collection, according to a company presentation shared via Facebook. The collection is part of the proposed plan for the historic building.
The project lands amid a broader wave of redevelopment along the Garfield Place corridor near Piatt Park. Just up the block, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. agreed in April to purchase the long-vacant 16-story Garfield Suites Hotel at 2 Garfield Place for $3.75 million, a deal Hoodline previously reported signaled broader revitalization efforts in the area. Nearby, the historic 1923 Doctors' Building at 19 Garfield Place is also being converted, in that case into 52 residential units, according to the Port.
Sunflower Development Group's reach extends beyond Cincinnati. The firm has also submitted a redevelopment proposal for the historic Bryant School in Kansas City, part of a three-way competition for that site. Whether the switch from apartments to hotel rooms at 30 Garfield Place reflects shifting demand for downtown lodging or other factors was not detailed in available reporting, but the scale of the pivot, from a 99-unit residential plan anchored by a $49.2 million budget to a $55 million, 150-room hotel, underscores how fluid adaptive reuse plans can be even after state tax credits are secured.
