Visionaries sought to restore hotel to former splendor

Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 27, 2002

"It would be nice to make it again the shining jewel that it once was." Kevin Hill, Marketing Director for the Phoenix Civic Plaza and Convention Center.

With downtown Phoenix undergoing a renaissance and hotel rooms in short supply, visionaries have long looked up Central Avenue toward the Westward Ho and wondered what if.

What if the former first-class luxury hotel could be restored to its original splendor.

"It would be nice to make it again the shining jewel that it once was," said Kevin Hill, marketing director for the Phoenix Civic Plaza and Convention Center. Although he doesn't favor displacing senior citizens, "hotel rooms are so badly needed" downtown, he said.

But Hill and others will have to keep on dreaming.

The Westward Ho's owners hope to finalize a new contract with the federal government by the end of winter that would keep the former hotel as a federally subsidized housing project for the elderly and mobility impaired for the next 20 years. The building was converted from a 400-room hotel to a federally subsidized housing project in 1981 after becoming a victim of a dying downtown.

Owners didn't consider restoring the building to a hotel before they began pursuing a new 20-year contract with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, said John Bentz, vice president of the Providence Rhode Island-based company that has owned the building since 1980.

Because of the building's size and age, restoring the Westward Ho to a hotel "would be totally (cost) prohibitive in today's market," Bentz said. To make a profit after renovation, room rates would have to be $400 to $500 a night, he estimated.

What's more, the Westward Ho at Central and Fillmore is just beyond walking distance from most downtown attractions, said, Don Miner, a Phoenix lawyer who represents the building's owners. It also lacks space for a golf course or other amenities standard at today's resorts.

As part of a new contract, however, owners hope to secure millions of dollars in federal funding for improvements. Among them: central air conditioning and repainting the exterior. Owners also want to convert 64 studio apartments into 32 one-bedroom apartments and remodel the old Thunderbird Room auditorium into 32 one-bedroom apartments.