Old circular Holiday Inn in downtown Raleigh prepares to reopen as Hotel Indigo

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A staple of the Raleigh skyline since the 1960s is getting new life.

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The old circular Holiday Inn is getting ready to welcome guests back for the first time in over a year, rebranded as a Hotel Indigo.

“Any opening takes a village, but so many different projects from the styling, to decorations, to everything you see in public areas and the guest rooms. An amazing, tremendous effort into coming up with the identity of the hotel,” said Carlos Faz, General Manager of the Hotel Indigo Raleigh Downtown.

Faz gave CBS 17 an exclusive look inside the revamped hotel after $36 million worth of renovations.

“Everything’s brand new and everything has a touch of Raleigh.”

The boutique hotel features 204 newly renovated rooms, a revamped fitness center, outdoor coffee and cocktail bar and a top-floor cocktail lounge offering panoramic views of the city.

“The designers spent a lot of time and effort into coming up with the identity and design. As you can see the biggest and most attractive point here are the views, very uniquely Raleigh,” Faz explained.

While the interior has been completely transformed, the outside of the building still looks like it did when it opened in the 1960s.

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“I think it’s great, obviously there’s a lot of affinity for that structure in downtown Raleigh,” said Downtown Raleigh Alliance CEO Bill King.

The city granted the unique building historical status last year, after it initially faced potential demolition.

“In a city which has grown a lot and is going to have a lot of new buildings, it’s nice to have one that speaks to a different time,” King said.

King says the hotel coming back online will bring a big boost to downtown as more people continue visiting Raleigh.

“If you don’t have enough rooms, you can’t bring in big conventions, you can’t bring in big events, business travel is harder,” King said. “Being able to provide hotel rooms and provide them in spaces that are cool, like a downtown, there are a lot of travelers who want that.”

The hotel will open the first weekend of October, just in time for parents weekend at NC State.

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