Workers remove stucco from the
exterior of the Cosmopolitan Hotel
Thursday morning in Fayetteville.
(Photo: Todd Gill / Enlarge)
When renovations are complete on the 14-story Cosmopolitan Hotel in downtown Fayetteville, the hotel will reopen with a new look and a new name.
The hotel will be called The Chancellor in an effort to promote the hotel’s proximity to the University of Arkansas and the school’s importance to Fayetteville.
The $7 million facelift will include a new exterior, a new lobby, and a total of about 200 completely refurbished rooms.
It’ll be the fourth name for the hotel which first opened in 1981 under the Hilton brand.
In 2001, the named changed from Hilton to Radisson. In 2006, the hotel was renamed The Cosmopolitan after partners John Nock and Richard Alexander purchased the business for a reported cost of about $16 million.
The hotel’s new owner, Southwind Hospitality Holdings, is a partnership between Ike Thrash of Dawn Properties in Hattiesburg, Miss. and Sam Alley of VCC Construction in Little Rock.
Renovation is expected to be complete by late 2012.
So, does this mean it will remain independent and not be part of a chain?
The price went from $16 million to less than $4 million in 5 years? Makes me feel better about the drop in the value of my residence.
Strange name choice. Reminds me of the Admiral Benbow (seedy motel name in Memphis).
Hey, wait a minute. I don’t know about the Admiral Benbow in Memphis, but the one in Pine Bluff had a GREAT pool–if a lot of relatives visited my grandparents in the ’60s, I would always try to be part of the overflow that got to stay at the A.B. But on reflection, maybe I put on my rose-colored glasses when I got up this morning…..
Lol, wasn’t Admiral Benbow the name of the inn in Treasure Island? I wonder if its a chain, or just a bunch of smaller hotels all had the same clever idea. A nautical themed hotel in downtown Fayetteville would definitely be unique.
We could roll with the academic theme and change the name of the Arvest building to “The Burser”, the municipal building over there could be “The Provost”, and the old post office building that rolls over every few years could be “The Dean”.
Maybe I’m the only one that actually likes the name, but I think it’s great. At least it has some connection to the fact that this is a Fayetteville property, I think the name sounds kind of stately and elegant, which is what I hope the hotel will be.
I think it should be called the Pale Pachyderm.
Adios yucko stucco.
With its freefall into disgrace and disrepair, maybe a classy new name is all it needs to get back on top. How ’bout “The Aristocrats?”
…or a classy new name and $7 million in renovations.
It sits on East St.-why not East Winds as a name.
A name as tacky as the building itself. I thought they were trying to make an improvement?
I agree it is a strange choice. Sounds very communist. Makes me think of “The Chairman”. I wonder if they will have giant portraits of him everywhere? Creepy.
Is it just me, or did they remove the white stucco, then paint it with gray primer, and now are repainting it white so it looks exactly as it did before they removed the stucco?
Lolz.