A $5.5 million renovation of the dual-brand Hampton Inn & Suites and Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel inside downtown Cincinnati's former Enquirer Building is complete, bringing freshly updated rooms, lobbies and amenities to one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. The hotel sits at 617 Vine St., inside a 14-story limestone building that once served as the longtime home of The Cincinnati Enquirer.
According to WKRC, the 249-room hotel sits immediately north of the Cincinnatian Hotel at the prominent northwest corner of Sixth and Vine streets downtown. A separate Local 12 report on the property's 2015 debut described the building as adding 250 new hotel rooms downtown, so the exact current room count varies slightly between the two accounts. The hotel operates as a dual-brand property, with Hampton Inn & Suites and Homewood Suites by Hilton sharing the historic structure.
The project, which SREE Hotels LLC owns and manages according to Hotel Online, took six months to complete. The renovation touched every guest room and public space, along with the laundry facilities and fitness center, per the Cincinnati Business Courier's reporting.
A Building With TV and Newspaper History
The building's roots go back nearly a century. The 14-story limestone structure opened in 1926 as the home of The Cincinnati Enquirer and remained its headquarters for more than 60 years, as reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer's own news coverage. The building is also famously associated with the television show “WKRP in Cincinnati,” a pop-culture link that still draws attention to the Vine Street address.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Amenities and a Decade-Old Conversion
Guests at the renovated property now have access to complimentary breakfast, Wi-Fi and a 24-hour fitness center, the Cincinnati Enquirer's report on the completed renovation notes. The hotel's dual-brand format dates to 2015, when the property paired Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites inside the old Enquirer building. That earlier transformation of the building itself cost nearly $30 million, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer's 2015 coverage of the opening.
Timed to a Busy Weekend Downtown
The renovation's completion lands at a notably busy moment for downtown hotels. The Business Courier reported that the project wrapped up as hotels across the city reported full bookings for Blink weekend, the kind of high-demand stretch that puts extra pressure on downtown lodging capacity.
