Ridgeline Development Partners told IBJ in February 2025 that conversion work on the 116-room Motto by Hilton at 1 N. Meridian St. would resume in the second quarter of that year. IBJ reported the story on 6 February 2025. Gettys’ timeline puts hotel completion in the fourth quarter of 2026, seven years after the first announcement.
The building
Vonnegut Bohn & Mueller designed the 11-story building. It went up in 1915 as the Kahn Tailoring Co. Building and served as headquarters for one of the largest tailoring firms in the state. The address sits just south of Monument Circle.
The basement restaurants
The Seville Tavern ran in the building’s basement from 1929 to 1957. The King Cole restaurant followed in the same space. It closed in the mid-1990s, and the property has carried the King Cole name since.
The owner and the flag
Indy Propco LLC has owned the building since early 2019. The entity is an affiliate of The Gettys Group and Ridgeline Development Partners. The Gettys Group is a Chicago hospitality design and development firm, and Ridgeline is its development subsidiary. The finished hotel carries the Motto by Hilton flag.
Company officials attributed the delays to economic conditions and rising construction costs. Rob Hunden, a spokesperson for The Gettys Group, put the reasons in writing to IBJ.
The cost path from $21 million
IBJ reported the conversion at $21 million when it was announced before the pandemic. The projection reached $54 million by 2022. Hunden told IBJ the group expects a final figure about 10 percent above its last projection, which puts the cost close to $60 million. He said costs rose across the board.
Gettys received city approval for $9.2 million in tax-increment financing bonds in 2022. The group also anticipates using federal historic tax credits.
What the conversion keeps and adds
The earlier plan carried a rooftop bar and restaurant overlooking Monument Circle and a street-level cafe. Gettys and Ridgeline now expect to add a bar and lounge at street level, likely in the space the Qdoba restaurant occupied until it closed in late 2024. IBJ reports the basement level could also be reconfigured into a high-end restaurant.
Visit Indy’s development list describes the finished property as boutique. The listing names the rooftop bar and restaurant, the street-level cafe and the street-level bar, and it cites views of Monument Circle.
The certificate behind the schedule
Indy Propco received a two-year extension of the project’s certificate of appropriateness from the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission in early February 2025. The commission approved the extension unanimously, with one abstention. The certificate had expired in 2023 and allows redevelopment of a historically significant building.
What the record carries
The published record carries the restart date, the cost path, the flag, the owner and the key count. It carries no start-of-construction notice for the resumed work, no room product mix beyond the 116-room count, no meeting space or banquet capacity, and no group rate.
The fourth-quarter 2026 completion is a target. The certificate extension runs two years from February 2025, which places the next approval milestone in early 2027.