A century-old downtown Phoenix office building will get a new life as a hotel, after it was purchased by a hospitality developer.
Aperture Hotels bought the Ellis Building, a six-story office building at Second Avenue and Monroe Street, from Equus Development Corp. for $10.3 million, according to real estate database Vizzda. The sale closed Oct. 6.
The 61,000-square-foot building will be converted into a Tribute Portfolio by Marriott hotel with between 95 and 105 rooms, along with a ground-floor restaurant and bar, according to NewGen Advisory, the brokerage that represented Equus in the sale.
In May, Phoenix approved a proposal to convert the office building into a hotel. Previous attempts to reuse the building were unsuccessful. In 2019, it was
planned to be reused as an office, but there was little demand for office space at the time. Later, Equus began converting the building for residential use, but did not complete it, according to Phoenix documents.
The building was constructed in 1922, and two stories were added in 1928. It was a city office building for decades, and the city sold it to Equus in 2019.
The building is one of two historic downtown office projects planned to be converted into hotels.
In August, Phoenix approved a development agreement to preserve and reuse the Security Building and Annex Building at Central Avenue and Van Buren Street.
The $135 million project will convert the buildings, which were built in 1928 and 1961 into a full-service hotel. The Security Building was added to the Phoenix Historic Property Register in 1987.
The hotel will include 255 guest rooms, a 5,500-square-foot ballroom, 13,000 square feet of meeting space and restaurant and bar space, according to Phoenix documents. The developer of the project is Phoenix-based CivicGroup.
The buildings are being used as office space for Maricopa County, but the county is consolidating its operations and moving its functions to other county properties.
Corina Vanek covers development for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X @CorinaVanek.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Historic downtown Phoenix offices to become hotels
