AFAIK it was built and planned as a hotel from the start.--unfortuatlly I'm old enough to remember,it was planned as an apartment building and part way through construction it was purchased and converted to a hotel.
crane will be going up the weekend of the 28th. They have already booked the road so everything should be in place. Excavation is 90 feet in the middle where the crane.....posted a few weeks back.Where's the crane?