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The University Park hotel is known for the robots in its lobby. |
The Hotel@MIT, in the University Park high-tech and biomedical campus adjacent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will become a luxury Le Meridien hotel, according to its new owner.
HEI Hotels & Resorts of Norwalk, Conn., which develops, owns, and operates hotels in the United States under several flags, said it would complete the purchase of the 210-room hotel, currently a Doubletree property, this week.
HEI Hotels said it would undertake a $7.3 million renovation of the hotel, located at 20 Sidney St., to be completed in 2009.
The purchase price was about $60 million.
HEI owns The Equinox resort and spa in Manchester Village, Vt., its only other New England property.
When its new flag is raised on Wednesday, the hotel will be the Boston area's only Le Meridien. Boston's previous Le Meridien, in the former Federal Reserve Bank building, became the Langham Boston Hotel in 2004.
Le Meridien is expanding under its new owner, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and has about 200 properties. Le Meridien Cambridge will cater to "upscale international travelers," the new owners said in a news release.
Jess Petitt, HEI's director of marketing, said the average room rate at the end of this year is expected to be $200. It will increase $20 to $50 a night when renovations are complete.
The new owners said guest rooms and the lobby will be renovated, with French accents characteristic of the brand.
A new "gourmet restaurant concept" is being developed.
The hotel is noted for having MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab robots in its lobby.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
