Opening of Statler Hotel in Dallas Mired in IRS Controversy
The Statler earlier this week.
The renovation of the former Statler Hilton in Dallas, Texas, a local landmark, has become the subject of controversy as work on the property continues.
Last month, the Dallas Morning News reported that the Internal Revenue Service is investigating the tax-exempt status of $26.5 million of municipal bonds sold last summer to fund the work. The hotel has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The hotel, slated to reopen as The Statler later this year, is undergoing a $225 million redevelopment that also includes the old Dallas Central Library.
The hotel was designed for the Statler chain but was sold to Hilton and opened as the Statler Hilton Dallas in 1956. Designed by William B. Tabler, it was praised by critics as the first modern American hotel but has been vacant since 2001.
The city of Dallas has granted the project $46.5 million in tax credits once it opens on the condition that it gets final city approval by October 2017. It will have over 20,000 square feet (1.858 square meters) of meeting and event space, as well as office space and private residences.
The Statler Hotel company was one of the country’s first hotel chains and catered to tourists and business travelers. It was founded by Ellsworth Milton Statler, who opened his first property, Statler’s Hotel, on the grounds of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, as a temporary structure. The hotelier’s second hotel was also a temporary structure, the Inside Inn, built for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. When it opened, it was the world’s largest hotel, with 2,257 guestrooms.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
