Skanska to Build Ohio’s First Dolce Hotel

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Dolce Lifestyle Hotel and Conference Center at Madison Center Cincinnati

Cincinnati—Skanska has signed a contract with RBM Development to oversee construction of the Dolce Lifestyle Hotel and Conference Center at Madison Center Cincinnati, in the eastside Cincinnati neighborhood of Madisonville, the company announced late last week.

The project is an adaptive reuse, with some new construction, of an existing parking garage into a 239-key, 426,000-square-foot, full-service boutique hotel and conference center. The nine-story building will feature an eight-story atrium, 16 event spaces, a rooftop garden, outdoor dining area, restaurant/lounge and a bridge connecting the hotel to the complex’s mixed-use center. It will be the first Dolce hotel in Ohio.

Skanska USA Building reportedly will include $51 million in its second quarter 2016 order bookings for the project; the hotel’s total price tag appears to be close to $60 million. The project was designed by CR architecture+design and SAMACH+SEO. Construction is scheduled to begin this month and be completed by December 2017.

Dolce Hotels and Resorts, which was purchased by Wyndham Hotel Group in February 2015, operates 23 properties worldwide.

The overall Madison Center project lies on a roughly 29-acre site that used to house a NuTone manufacturing and warehouse complex. The majority of the property was redeveloped as the three-building, 332,000-square-foot headquarters of Medpace Inc. The company is a global clinical research organization, aka contract research organization, that is, a company that provides research support to pharmaceutical companies and/or medical device manufacturers.

Just about a year ago, Medpace won approval from the Cincinnati City Council for a $126 million public-private redevelopment of the remaining 8 acres, to include, besides the hotel, two office buildings totaling 160,000 square feet, 75,000 square feet of retail space and a public plaza. A possible luxury residential component is also under consideration, according to marketing material from JLL, which handles leasing at Madison Center.

The developer, RBM Development, is owned by Dr. August Troendle, founder & CEO of Medpace.

JLL was unable to provide additional information, and neither Wyndham, Skanska nor RBM Development responded to Commercial Property Executive’s requests for further information.

Rendering courtesy of JLL