HAMILTON, Ohio — When someone walks into the lobby of The Well House Hotel closer to the end of the year, they’ll get an idea of what it would have looked like nearly a century ago when it was The Anthony Wayne Hotel.
Vision AWH LLC, which developer Matt Olliges leads, is several months away from completing the renovation of the latest hotel property within the city of Hamilton. Much work had been done to transform what was formerly the Anthony Wayne Apartments into one of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection properties. Most of the rooms have been outfitted with drywall, and some bathrooms are seeing blue subway-style tiles installed.
All the rooms will be considered suites, with eight rooms on the second to seventh floors, and six rooms on the first floor. The first and seventh floors will be the last ones to be finished, Olliges said.
“It’s a great view of the historic views of the city,” said Olliges, who also developed the Hammerle apartments, an adaptive reuse project on Main Street in a former bank building with six apartments above Billy Yanks Restaurant and Bourbon Bar.
A lot of the interior work at the South Monument Avenue project was done in 2023 for the $16 million renovation project. Once the $1.645 million Ohio’s historic tax credits award came last June, they began exterior work.
There are challenges for adaptive reuse projects, where some of the modern technology and requirements, like HVAC and electrical, may mean a typical eight-foot ceiling might be a half-foot or more lower “and you got to work around it,” Olliges said.
“There are always little hiccups,” he said. “If you saw the swing scaffolding up there (on the roof) for the last six months, all of the stone and brick had to be rebuilt from the top floor windows up. That was not in the budget, but this is a long-term hold, and we wanted to do it right.”
This will be a 54-room hotel with a 40-car parking lot, accommodated with the permanent closure of South Monument Street between High and Court Streets and by agreements with neighboring properties.
“Anytime you go into an urban setting, there are going to be parking challenges,” Olliges said, adding that when he pitches a deal in any urban city, “You want parking problems. People are there parking, doing stuff, spending money.”
The Cafeo Hospitality, which operates Billy Yanks, is the restaurant operator for the yet-to-be-named restaurant at The Well House Hotel.
Olliges plans to further integrate himself into a city he wanted to invest in because of Spooky Nook but grow because of the community.
“What brought me here four years ago was Spooky Nook and all of the promises for growth that it held, then I got to see what Hamilton was really about,” Olliges said. “There’s a lot of momentum going here, stuff other than Spooky Nook. We want to work together and capture that momentum to make our project a success as well as the city as a whole.”
They’ve already worked with Thommy Long and LemonGrenade, who came up with the hotel’s name, Olligest said. He’s had multiple meetings with the Fitton Center for Creative Arts leaders as “they don’t have a hotel, we don’t have a ballroom or a place to have a wedding here. That’s a great marriage, and we’re right across the street from one another.”
Ian Mackenzie-Thurley, Fitton Center’s executive director, said The Well House Hotel is “incredibly exciting” for the city and the South Monument Avenue area, which the community is invited to see first-hand in mid-August with the Fitton Center’s first-ever season launch community block party.
“For many years there’s been incredible development and rejuvenation for all parts of Hamilton, which has been fantastic to see,” he said. “And to see this South Monument Avenue corridor come to life, starting with this beautiful historic building to be fully renovated to its former glory, it’s really exciting for the community.”
Mackenzie-Thurley said the city’s redevelopment efforts of old buildings “has been wonderful to see.”
“We’ve got these incredible historic, old buildings that are challenged and are challenging to do, but the phrase is, ‘They just don’t build them like that anymore,’” he said. “To keep these wonderful buildings that represent great history to Hamilton, but fantastic beauty and elegance and great structure, and to keep that character to grow it further, it’s pretty impressive.”
The Well House will also be across High Street from another boutique hotel as the yet-to-be-named Marriot Tribute brand will open a 150 to 160-room hotel at 20 High St. in 2026.
“Obviously, we need hotel space, from that perspective, it’s a positive, but it’s much bigger than that,” said Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dan Bates. “I think it’s a symbol.”
The Hamilton Chamber was one of the advocates to get the then-Anthony Wayne Hotel built in the 1920s, which was a luxury hotel that was the place to go. Then it became something else, Bates said when it transitioned into an apartment complex for seniors and then Section 8.
“To have it come back to its roots and become a luxury hotel again, to me it’s a sign and a symbol of what’s happening in Hamilton,” he said. “Here’s a building that’s kind of gone downhill for decades, and now it’s going to be a showplace for downtown Hamilton.”
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