Hilton Cleveland Downtown Marks Milestone in its Construction Schedule With Traditional ‘Topping Out’ Ceremony

CLEVELAND (September 30, 2015) – Representatives from Cuyahoga County, the city of Cleveland, Turner Construction Company, Hilton Worldwide, community leaders and other hotel project supporters celebrate the “topping out” of the $272 million Hilton Cleveland Downtown, scheduled to open in June 2016.

The 600-room, convention-style hotel property will be located on Lakeside Avenue directly adjacent to the Lake Erie shoreline, FirstEnergy Stadium and connected to the new Cleveland Convention Center and Global Center for Health Innovation. In recognition of Hilton Cleveland Downtown reaching its highest point in construction, the topping out ceremony was attended by Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, Dan Brady, president, Cuyahoga County Council, Pernel Jones Jr., vice president, Cuyahoga County Council, Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson, Kevin Kelley, president, Cleveland City Council, David Wondolowski, executive secretary, Building and Construction Trades Council, Jason Jones, vice president and general manager, Turner Construction Company and Teri Agosta, general manager, Hilton Cleveland Downtown.

“This is really another exciting day for our region. Today’s event marks an important milestone as we watch our vision for a world-class hotel become a reality right before our eyes,” said County Executive Budish. “This project ties together both the Global Center for Health Innovation and the Cleveland Convention Center -making it the perfect tourist trifecta. These three facilities serve as the catalyst for bringing new economic activity to our region, laying a new foundation for continued development.”

The project is a collaboration between the Cuyahoga County Council, Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council and the city of Cleveland. Hilton Hotels & Resorts, owned by Hilton Worldwide, will operate the hotel and provide day-to-day operations support including sales, marketing and customer service.

“This day marks a significant milestone in the long-standing relationship between Hilton and the city of Cleveland, representatives from Cuyahoga County, as well as all our distinguished business partners involved in this spectacular project,” stated Teri Agosta, general manager, Hilton Cleveland Downtown. “We are on track to open next June as originally planned and thrilled to be developing a 600-room Hilton hotel in such a dynamic market like Cleveland, given its recent resurgence. We understand the need to fulfill the demand for additional hotel rooms which will also create new job opportunities for Clevelanders.”

The 32-floor, convention-style hotel has more than 46,000 square feet of function space, including a 20,778-square-foot Grand Ballroom and a 15,729-square-foot Junior Ballroom. Nine meeting rooms, featuring natural lighting with floor-to-ceiling windows and lake views, accompany the ballrooms on the third and fifth floors. On the concourse level, a subterranean passway will connect visitors to the Cleveland Convention Center. The convention center contains 225,000 square feet in meeting space, including 36 private meeting rooms and a 32,000-square-foot ballroom.

The hotel topping out ceremony marks a time-honored construction custom dating back more than one thousand years. With its Scandinavian origins, local superstition held that it was necessary to appease the gods and ancestral spirits living in the trees that were cut and used in building structures. In modern times, once the top story of a structure is completed, a live evergreen is hoisted to the top of the building. For the Cleveland property’s topping out ceremony, a construction beam will be available for attendees to sign, staged on the mall the morning of the ceremony. This beam will have a small tree mounted on top of it along with an American flag, signifying anticipated readiness for the 2016 National Republican Convention.

In August, Turner Construction Company workers rescued a baby falcon from the highest floor of the Hilton Cleveland Downtown pre-maturely named “Hilton Hawk” by the workers who rescued it. The Lake Erie Nature and Science Center cared for the falcon until its release on September 8. At today’s ceremony, Director of Wildlife Amy LeMonds and Wildlife Rehabilitation Specialist Tim Jasinski accepted a monetary donation from Hilton Cleveland Downtown and its team members in recognition of their tireless work in wildlife rehabilitation.

For more information, visit Hilton Cleveland Downtown.