A huge crowd gathered in the lobby of the Farragut Hotel building this morning, as the Dover Development, White Lodging and Hyatt Place team cut the ribbon at 530 S. Gay Street.

Over the past nearly two years, the redevelopment team did a great job with a labor of love, restoring this grand 100-year-old hotel, which had sat empty for decades. Guests at the ribbon-cutting complimented the attention to detail, the devotion to historical accuracy, and the hundreds of pieces of original artwork by local artists that adorn the new hotel.

The redevelopment team received top awards earlier this month when Knox Heritage presented its annual preservation awards.

Dover Development and Design Innovation Architects won the Mayor of Knoxville Award for this Farragut Hotel project; Dover Development also won the Knox County Mayor Award for its Knoxville High restoration, and Design Innovation Architects’ founder and president, Faris Eid, who partnered on the Farragut Hotel, also was named Knox Heritage’s Preservationist of the Year.

With vision and $25 million in private investment, and some strategic assistance from the public sector, the historic Farragut Hotel is days away from reopening to overnight guests as a new Hyatt Place. This is the iconic hotel where Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig stayed; it’s also where the Southeastern Conference and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra got their starts.

Congratulations, Hyatt Place, and welcome to downtown Knoxville! This project took a lot of collaboration and creativity, and the new Farragut Hotel is elegant and inviting. The City is looking forward to showing Hyatt Place guests all that downtown Knoxville has to offer.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of what the Farragut Hotel looked like in early 2016:




And here are scenes from this morning: