TOLEDO, Ohio — A lot of revitalization has happened in downtown Toledo in recent years. Old buildings have found a new purpose and the movement to breathe new life into the city has reached south Toledo and the historic Hotel Royal.
Owner Erin Claussen bought the Hotel Royal back in 2017. She also owns Toledo Revival, which focuses on cultural resource management and historic preservation and helped spark her interest in the building.
"I always thought it would be fun to try hospitality and thought it would be really cool to make the hotel, a hotel again," Claussen said.
She said the building was built in the 1890s and was used for railroad passenger and employee housing, but went vacant. She said her interest kept growing and she eventually bought it from the city of Toledo.
"We're doing five short-term rentals, an Airbnb small boutique hotel on the first floor, along with some commercial space at the front," she said.
Claussen said that with demand in downtown Toledo for apartment housing, the second and third floors will accommodate three apartments. On the first floor, she plans to make a commercial space to showcase relics and antiques for sale.
She couldn't do it alone and ended up bringing in Ark Restoration & Construction for help. Ark Restoration owner Ambrea Mikolajczyk said the company has been taking on similar projects for 15 years.
"We like to repurpose, resave and use everything we can possibly can because we're kind of historians in that nature," Mikolajczyk said. "And we don't like to throw things away."
She said the hotel will be anything but cookie-cutter, using repurposed materials they've received from other areas of Ohio such as doors from the 1900s from Van Wert.
"Very tall ceilings, big picture windows, openness. It's going to be modern finishes, but in a historic building," Mikolajczyk said. "And there's going to be some cool surprises that jump out at you in the floors, the walls and the finishes."
Claussen said they are still waiting on a few more materials from the supply chain before they can open the building up in early spring or summer.