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Developer urges city, county to back downtown hotel

Posted By: Toledo Blade on September 7, 2025.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

Columbus real estate developer Frank Kass is investing in Toledo, believing the downtown is on the verge of a boom around Monroe and Summit streets.

At the center of that development? The 15-story Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites that Mr. Kass recently renovated through a partnership with Lucas County. Attached to the new convention center and near Toledo’s riverfront, Mr. Kass believes his hotel — and the rest of downtown — are ripe for growth.

Mr. Kass has developed mixed-use housing projects across the country. In Toledo, he has developed the Marina and Colony lofts, two residential developments that have bolstered the city’s housing stock by adding more than 600 apartments near the Glass City Metropark in East Toledo and ProMedica Toledo Hospital.

In 2022, he completed a full renovation of the former Park Inn, which had fallen from its former status and became run-down. The $67.9 million in upgrades resulted in a dual-branded Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Homewood Suites, which aimed to attract convention attendees and business travelers from ProMedica and other downtown headquarters.

Mr. Kass and Continental Development Ventures are the majority owners of the hotel, but Lucas County owns the remaining 20 percent share. The county contributed about $37.5 million through short-term bond anticipation notes, which it has continued to roll over since they were first issued.

The project has had its struggles. Its occupancy has been lower than expected as it waits for business travel and conventions to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to cash-flow issues, Mr. Kass said.

An air-conditioning failure over the summer drained the hotel’s reserves of more than $500,000, leaving the operation short of cash while Mr. Kass waits for a warranty check. He’s hopeful the hotel will rebound alongside the county’s convention center, which underwent a $70 million renovation and is poised to see increased business as a result.

“It’s one of the better hotels, really, in the state of Ohio,” Mr. Kass said. “But it’s a convention center hotel — its livelihood is directly related to the activities generated by the convention center.”

Not making money

While he waits for the hotel to turn a profit, Mr. Kass said he wants the county to pick up the project’s slack and contribute between $500,000 and $1 million to bolster the hotel’s cash reserves before November. The hotel is not making money, Mr. Kass said, and the fast-approaching winter season is notoriously slow for the hotel industry.

“If [the county] wants a return, they’re going to have to spend a little bit more or get the city to partner with them — which would be a great idea,” Mr. Kass said. “The county needs to step up, and the city should step up — it’s right in their downtown. Politicians here have to do the right thing and stand behind the hotel now.”

Continental and the hotel’s operator, First Hospitality Group, have offered the city a 20 percent ownership stake in exchange for additional cash to sure up its reserves. Mr. Kass said the city has not been open to negotiations at this point.

Beyond that, he wants to see the hotel and the county’s convention and visitors bureau, Destination Toledo, work together more closely to bring more money into both businesses.

“It’s not my job to run the convention center, to run the hotel. I’m the developer. I’m not going to walk away if somebody is willing to do what they need to do, but it’s not my job to step up and fund shortfalls in the hotel,” he said. “I’m in it for the long haul if everyone else is, and right now the city is not doing their part.”

Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said the county is open to discussing additional money. Giving the project another million before the winter, at this point, would not be “throwing good money after bad,” Mr. Gerken said.

“We’ve had good conversation with the finance teams at Continental and First Hospitality, and we agree the projections look better,” Mr. Gerken said. “I think it would be shortsighted for us not to protect the investments — the large investments — that we made with some short-term cash.”

“I would love for the city to do that — that’s up to them, but no doubt I think the city of Toledo has benefited as greatly as anyone else from the presence of that operation downtown,” Mr. Gerken continued.

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz declined comment and referred to a statement from the city’s spokesman.

“Each of us has our own part to play in sustaining this energy, and the city is committed to continuing its role in shaping a vibrant and thriving downtown,” the statement reads in part.

Mr. Kass believes the stage is set for Summit and Monroe streets to boom and for the county’s $37.5 million investment to pay off, but local governments need to put more skin in the game to reach that point.

“You’ve got the Huntington Center, you have a ballpark, … you’ve got the convention center with a brand-new ballroom, you’ve got a great new hotel with suites and rooms and a restaurant — it’s all there, it’s just got to be supported by the county and the city,” he said.

Hotel projections

Data from a study commissioned by the county in September show the hotel’s occupancy rate will increase slowly over the next four years, from 58 percent to 62 percent by 2029. At that point, the occupancy rates are expected to stabilize, and begin returning about $2.7 million annually.

But for now, the hotels have not met financial goals since opening, the study said.

The Hilton Garden Inn will grow from 55 percent to 59 percent occupancy, mostly driven by expected convention center growth. Relative to Toledo’s hotel market, the Hilton Garden Inn overperforms in the meeting and groups but underperforms in transient visitors.

Homewood Suites is just the opposite, performing better with transient visitors than meeting visitors. That portion of the hotel is expected to grow more modestly, from 66 percent to 68 percent.

Mr. Kass said August has been the strongest month for the hotel yet, and he is optimistic that the trajectory will continue after the winter, when room bookings generally slow down.

Convention center demand and attendance have increased since the Glass City Center reopened in 2022, but the study cites a lack of coordination between the hotel and convention center as an area for improvement.

According to stakeholders interviewed during the process, the hotel does not have enough capacity to attract large conventions, but there is simultaneously not enough nonconvention demand to fill the hotels when the convention center does not have events.

The downtown hotels have also not offered large enough blocks of rooms to accommodate large conventions, or have not offered competitive enough rates, which led to the convention center losing the conventions’ business. The study cites at least four events in 2024 that could have been recovered with “more cooperative bids” from the hotel.

It recommends a more streamlined and cooperative booking process between the hotel and convention center, chief among which is a booking policy that sets criteria for the hotel and convention center as to what events are mutually profitable. It also recommends increased data sharing that is uniform between the two facilities and a shared marketing strategy.

Mr. Kass said the fate of the hotel is linked with the fate of the convention center. Based on what he’s seen, the city and the county need to make sure the hotel and convention center are well-positioned to anchor the downtown’s growth.

“I’m not sure anyone understands the importance of the hotel and the convention center to the overall community,” Mr. Kass said. “All of these things are intertwined, but if you look at them … what’s in the middle of everything? The convention center and the hotel.”

Conventions on the upswing

For Lance Woodworth, president and general manager of Destination Toledo, the convention landscape in the city is slowly changing, and for the better.

“At Destination Toledo we do individual travel and group travel,” he said. “We are starting to see normalization in the group travel — convention — side.”

“With COVID, a lot of those events that were booked into certain places in 2020, 2021, and 2022 ended up getting canceled,” he said.

“It pushed everything forward. All of those contractual obligations they had with other venues, they have expired,” Mr. Woodworth said. “We are able to start pulling some of those in.”

Without obligations to their previous venues, groups are being drawn to Toledo by the quality of facilities now available.

“We have had some great wins that would have never happened if the renovation to the Glass City Center and the attached hotel had not happened,” he said. “The Ohio Economic Development Association was a big win. It was the first time it left Columbus. It came to Toledo and set records in attendance and sponsorship dollars.”

Getting people to conventions in Toledo can help with individual, or family travel down the road.

“People really like these mid-tier cities like Toledo. They feel like they are celebrated here, unlike being tolerated in those bigger cities, where people may not even know they are in town,” Mr. Woodworth said. “More often than not, when we get people into town, they say ‘wow, this is not what I imagined it would be,’ and they come back.”

In the past two years, the Glass City Center has hosted nearly 60 conventions, with 40 of them being either regional or national events, drawing thousands of people into the metro Toledo area, according to data from Destination Toledo.

In the next two years, seven major conferences — from the 2025 Garmin Expo through the 2027 Health Occupations Students of America Conference — are already booked for the Glass City Center. These seven events alone are expected to attract more than 11,500 attendees. They will require more than 4,700 room nights in area hotels and are forecasted to contribute more than $8.1 million to the local economy.

Public, private partnerships vital

One local developer, Brian McMahon, president of Danberry National, Ltd., described a robust convention business as a key to local economic development efforts.

“As a person who lives here, it is important to have a viable combination of hotels and a convention center. One cannot function without the other,” he said.

He credited a healthy, robust convention business to helping increase both direct and indirect tourism revenues. From individuals who are exposed to the city because they were in town for a convention, and then return to the region with their families for leisure.

While the quality and quantity of facilities — from the convention center to downtown accommodations — are vital, another integral aspect of economic development is the collaboration between public officials and the private sector.

“Most of our development efforts are focused on the suburbs,” Mr. McMahon said.

“One of the best collaborative efforts I have seen in any political subdivision is Wood County. Wood County has a long track record of working with the private sector,” he said. “They are a great example of how the public and private sectors can work together. I have observed a level of cooperation in Wood County that other political subdivisions could probably take lessons from.”

“Amazon, for example, there are soon to be four Amazon facilities in our area, three of which will be in Wood county,” he said. “Their developers have huge accolades for how quickly they got those approvals. [Wood County] is one of the most cooperative political jurisdictions they have worked in. The same comment was made by the Meta people for the data center we have assembled for them in Middletown Township.”

Other factors

Just how people get to Toledo can have an impact, but local officials have worked to overcome those challenges.

The Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport has not had regular flights since September, 2022, when American Eagle ended its daily flight from Toledo to Chicago. A $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded last fall aimed to lure new passenger service to the airport, but no new flights have been announced.

Allegiant Air is the only passenger airline to offer flights from the Toledo airport, with service to Punta Gorda, Orlando/Sanford International, and St. Pete/Clearwater International airports. This summer, the airline announced it would begin local flights to and from Sarasota/Bradenton, Fla., in November.

Allegiant also flies between Toledo and Mesa, Ariz., near Phoenix, although as with most of its other routes, the service is seasonal and only operates several times per week. Allegiant’s routes are tailored to locals who are traveling for vacation or for retirees who are coming home for a visit. There is currently no service that connects Toledo Express to a major airline hub.

Its four existing routes carried 57,519 outbound passengers and 56,617 inbound passengers at Toledo Express last year. Through June of this year, Allegiant’s passenger total of 72,279 was 14 more travelers than the same period last year, with one fewer flight, according to port authority statistics.

“I love Toledo Express,” Mr. Woodworth admitted. “I love the experience flying out of there. It is so easy. I love the Allegiant Service, I flew it into Mesa. I love that whole experience, you can nearly park at the front door and security is a breeze.”

“From Destination Toledo’s perspective, more is better, if we had more air service [in to Toledo Express], that would give us more to sell,” he said. “Destination Midwest, a well respected, well attended show has people flying into Detroit metro. I don’t believe it was a negative for us. It wasn’t a barrier.”

“Our sales team, we play the cards we are dealt. Detroit Metro to downtown may be only 40 minutes, but I always want to see Toledo Express be more robust, and see more business there,” he said.

There are no public transportation options from Detroit Metro to downtown Toledo, leaving travelers with the costly expense of renting a car or using a ride share service. Based on recent estimates, a ride share service could cost between $80 and $90 one-way. A two-day car rental ranges from $129 to $235, depending on the type of vehicle.

Mr. Kass’ properties are not the only ones downtown that are struggling. The 14-story Renaissance Toledo Downtown Hotel, just four blocks down Summit Street, has been listed for sale through Berkadia Hotels & Hospitality.

The 241-room Renaissance is one of Marriott’s hotel brands. It was acquired by First Hospitality Group in 2015 for $8.2 million and underwent $31 million in renovations before opening in 2017. Between 2019 and 2024, it underwent an additional $4.3 million in renovations.

The hotel is listed for sale “at an outstanding discount to replacement cost and regional comparable sales,” according to the listing, and will remain affiliated as a Marriott hotel. The hotel also hosts two full-service restaurants, Brim House and the Heights, has an 11,000-square-foot ballroom, and 15,792 square feet of meeting space.