People have been asking me for an update to my post from 5/2/06 ("New Hilton Hotel redevelopment of Miller & Rhoads") which outlined the redevelopment of the old Miller & Rhoads department store downtown into a sparkling new Hilton hotel, along with lots of new condo units (just what we need) and new retail space.
Anyone driving by the site on Broad Street can see that not a whole lot of progress has been made. One would think that the project has just been forgotten.
In fact, the construction has just been delayed a few months due to various factors: the recent rise in construction costs, difficulties in financing, the softening in the housing market, and tax credit issues. The developers expect to have everything in place and to begin construction in December.
And as a side note: This hotel will be a full-service upscale Hilton, but developers are not revealing which sub-brand name they will be using.
(Source: "Downtown Hilton Delayed to December" in 11/8/06 edition of Style Weekly)