Two of downtown Hartford’s most prominent hotels — the Hilton Hartford and the Marriott Hartford Downtown — are in danger of closing as the losses by the hospitality industry deepen in a pandemic that has gutted business travel and shut down large entertainment venues in the city.
Closings would be a blow to downtown revitalization efforts, and another sign of the vast power of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In letters to the state Department of Labor notifying the state of more than 300 temporary and permanent layoffs at the two hotels and the reduction in the hours of another 50 workers, the owner of the two hotels, Waterford Group, said there was the potential for closures.
The letters did not specify whether the closures would be temporary or permanent.
In a statement Wednesday, Waterford said the COVID-19 pandemic has posed “unprecedented” challenges to the hotel industry. Waterford said it was examining all options for the hotels.
“The hotels are working hard to ensure their viability, and we are communicating with the city and state to explore meaningful solutions to offset the devastating impact of the pandemic,” the statement said. “We remain hopeful that we will be able to continue to serve the greater Hartford community, the people of Connecticut and travelers visiting our state.”
The discussions with the state and city involve “financial relief” that would offset the impact of the pandemic, the letters to the state labor department said. The letters did not specify the nature of the relief, but said discussions had been “productive” but with not enough assurances to avoid layoffs or to face the potential closing of the hotels.
Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday the state is examining the plight of hotels.
“I’m not as enthusiastic about having taxpayer dollars to subsidize private businesses, but we’ll look broadly at what we can do to make sure that part of town gets going again,” Lamont said.
The state Department of Economic and Community Development declined to comment Wednesday.
The dependence of the Hilton and the Marriott on corporate travel would likely leave them lagging in recovery behind other hotels in the state. And the changes in business travel forged by the pandemic — and the migration to virtual meetings — could leave long-lasting gaps in bookings.
David Griggs, president and chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance, said he foresees a gradual return of business travel for larger group and sales meetings, a driver of hotel bookings. Griggs also said face-to-face interaction will remain a cornerstone of business. But what might not return as quickly are one-on-one meetings that can be handled virtually.
“We’re absolutely likely to see that in the near-term,” Griggs said. “Anytime you have to get on an airplane, you’re going to think twice. How important is this meeting?”
For downtown Hartford, the closure of one or both of the hotels would drastically disrupt an economic ecosystem where key venues such as the XL Center and convention center count on hotel rooms for visitors to events in the city.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin Wednesday called for the state to intervene with financial help.
“Because you cannot attract conventions or attract entertainment or sports events without hotels linked to those venues,” Bronin said. “The reality is if these hotels were to fail, the state of Connecticut would pay a significant financial price down the road and that price would be far greater than the cost of providing timely relief.”
Bronin said the city has been working with Waterford to seek relief for a loan from the federal government that came through the city to Waterford. The loan now has about a $5 million balance and was used to help finance a $33 million makeover of the Hilton by Waterford in 2005, officials said.
Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, said Wednesday he views the Hilton as the most vulnerable to closure. That’s because it is due for a $5 million upgrade that would allow the 390-room hotel to retain its Hilton flag, he said.
The 409-room Marriott, Freimuth said, recently underwent an upgrade and is a far newer building, having opened in 2005, part of the Adriaen’s Landing redevelopment by the riverfront. The Hilton dates back to the 1970s.
“How best to ride this business trough is the challenge and a temporary closure or a greatly reduced operational format is quite possible,” Freimuth said.
Hotels in downtown Hartford have long struggled with a boom-or-bust cycle of demand. A decade ago, there also were worries the Hilton would close in a deep economic recession.
But in recent years, The Goodwin hotel, shuttered for almost 10 years reopened and, more recently, there have been proposals for at least two “boutique” hotels. Those are now on hold, Freimuth said.
The letters to the labor department from the general managers of the two hotels paint a dire picture of the challenges confronting the two properties, which depend heavily on weekday business travel.
Nick Lorusso, general manager of the Hilton on Trumbull Street, said initially the hotel had expected layoffs and hour reductions first imposed in March to be short-term and six months at the most.
But Lorusso wrote the downturn is emerging as far deeper than first anticipated. Government restrictions on business, large gathering and travel generally amid the pandemic have combined with a reluctance by the public to travel at all, he wrote.
Lorusso said the hotel doesn’t expect a change in that reluctance to travel in the near future, and even with Connecticut’s phase two reopening, there has not been any significant increase in bookings and stays. The outlook turned even bleaker with a pause by the state on further phases of reopening.
In addition, Lamont’s move to further tightening measures to require air travelers from nearly half the country to self-quarantine for two weeks after arriving in Connecticut “will result in a precipitous decline to already distressed levels of travel to the state and have a devastating impact on the hotel’s business operations,” Lorusso wrote.
A similar alarm was sounded by Fabio Pari di Monriva, general manager of the Marriott on Columbus Boulevard next to the convention center.
“… it has now become apparent that the hotel does not have the resources or the business need to continue its operations at the same level that existed prior to the COVID-19 crisis,” Pari di Monriva wrote.
In an interview with the Courant a month ago, Len Wolman, Waterford’s chief executive, said: “In 34 years that we’ve been a company, we’ve never experienced anything like this.”
“It’s been incredibly challenging and a very slow climb out of this,” Wolman said. “It’s not like you flip the switch and it shut down and you’re going to flip another and it’s going to open up.”
Courant Staff Writer Christopher Keating contributed to this story.
Contact Kenneth R. Gosselin at kgosselin@courant.com.
