By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor<\/p>\n
In a press release issued last week, management of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Hotel announced the completion of a $17 million renovation project of the building\u2019s 92,000-square-foot meeting space. The hotel features 1,408 guest rooms and 72 meeting rooms, the largest of which is the 34,300-square-foot Grand Ballroom, which can accommodate up to 4,500 people. According to Bill Walsh, the hotel\u2019s general manager, the renovation project included all meeting rooms apart from the recently renovated Franklin Hall.<\/p>\n
The main improvements include installation of state-of the-art lighting and audio systems, a new electronic reader board system, new carpeting and wall vinyl, new air walls with state-of-the art soundproofing, upgraded meeting rooms suitable for meetings of up to 3,000 guests and modern redesign of the site\u2019s sky bridge. According to the press release, the hotel\u2019s meeting rooms, banquet halls, ballrooms and over 200 guest rooms occupy part of the Headhouse, which used to be the Reading Railroad Co.\u2019s headquarters until 1984, when the rail closed. The Headhouse was then converted into Philadelphia Convention Center\u2019s new main entrance, and the train shed became the Grand Hall and Ballroom. The hotel\u2019s current meeting space, banquet halls and ballrooms occupy the former offices of the Reading Railroad on the Headhouse\u2019s upper floor.<\/p>\n
Other real estate headlines include reference to developer Bart Blatstein\u2019s decision to buy\u00a0 the 526,000-square-foot building currently housing The Inquirer<\/em>, the Philadelohia Daily News<\/em> and Philly.com<\/em>. The 87-year-old, 18-floor tower was sold by Philadelphia Media Network to Blatstein Tower Investments at an undisclosed price, informs The Inquirer, <\/em>but according to information from another bidder, the purchase price exceeded $19 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor
\nIn a press release issued last week, management of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Hotel announced the completion of a $17 million renovation project of the building\u2019s 92,000-square-foot meeting space. The hotel features 1,408 guest rooms and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742,1494],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004052967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest","category-philadelphia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n