FOUND:RE Hotel Coming to Downtown Phoenix in 2016

For years now, developers have been working toward transforming the former Lexington Hotel in central Phoenix into a boutique art hotel. Finally, the project has a name and a semi-firm timeline. 

On October 26, Habitat Metro and Bond Partners announced that renovations will be completed in spring 2016 and the new hotel will be called FOUND:RE.

Both Habitat, a local developer behind the Portland on the Park and Portland Place condos, and Bond, a hotel developer, have been attached to the project since the Lexington shuttered back in April of 2012. The developers had planned to renovate and reopen the space by the following year — a timeline that obviously didn't pan out.

“The FOUND:RE completes our vision of transforming Portland Street back into the gem of Downtown Phoenix that it once was,” Habitat Metro's Tim Sprague says in the release.

With 104 rooms, the space will have a raw, industrial look, a yet-to-be announced restaurant concept, public spaces, and a dedication to visual arts. Urban Quarters Hospitality will manage the property, and Phoenix curator and gallerist Mike Oleskow will serve as the hotel's cultural curator.

“We‘re thrilled to be part of this project that will be a stylish gathering place for locals and Phoenix visitors to enjoy and become inspired,” says general manager Vittal Calamur in a prepared statement. “The buzz and excitement around the completion of The FOUND:RE has been building for the past few years, and we’re thrilled to see it come to fruition."

Oleskow says the hotel will display curated contemporary art for sale throughout the property. That includes hotel rooms, the lobby, ballrooms, and a more traditional exhibition space located near the pool. "We're investing in them," Oleskow says of the artists who will show and sell work, "and they're investing in us."

The non-visual art programming hasn't been ironed out, Oleskow says it "will be adjunct to the art [and] an integral piece to the programming of the overall hotel."