The hotel development will include a rooftop pool and lounge, a Hard Rock Cafe, a workout facility, a spa, and a store.
The effort to revive the neighborhood around downtown Hartford’s new minor league baseball stadium is gaining some big name support -- and a new hotel.
Hard Rock Hotel Hartford will open near the Dunkin’ Donuts Park, the new home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the developers said.
In a press release, Hard Rock said it will build a new 170-room hotel to open in fall 2018. It will include a rooftop pool and lounge, a Hard Rock Cafe, a workout facility, a spa, and a store.
Jason Rudnick, president of Centerplan Companies, said that the hotel will do what others in the city don’t -- bring weekend guests and vitality.
“We’ve done the studies,” Rudnick said. “The hotel that we’re talking about is a Hard Rock.... It’s coming to life on the weekends... whereas the current market dies down on the weekends. So, we’re the antithesis of what you have right now.”
Rudnick said the hotel will open just across the street from the ballpark -- where his construction trailer sits now. When the trailer is gone, it will eventually be replaced by the “glowing iconic” Hard Rock guitar.
But if Hard Rock means adding a hotel, it also means taking away apartments.
The original plan was for 330 units. Now, it looks as though there will just be 180.
Rudnick said plans for the grocery store are still in the works, as are efforts to bring a brewery to the neighborhood.
Also, given all the talk of a new casino somewhere in the state, it made sense to ask whether Rudnick said his company had plans to make a bid.
“There is no casino play with regard to the Hard Rock Hotel,” he said.
