If the Macy's Plaza in downtown is a fortress, then the Sheraton Downtown has always been its ominous brick watchtower. Now that the Macy's is set to become The Bloc, a $160-million, open-air, ped-friendly mixed-use complex, the Sheraton will be receiving its own upgrade, to the tune of $40 million, that will create 10 more rooms and include a number of interior modifications, says the Downtown News. The most drastic change is that visitors will no longer enter from Hope Street to find that they must take the stairs down into the hotel's subterranean lobby-dungeon: The reno will bring the check-in up to street level. Other upgrades will include fridges in the rooms, faster WiFi, and a reinvigoration of the room decor. The big question is: Will an interior makeover be enough to keep the Sheraton busy? The push to get thousands of new hotel rooms into Downtown aside, the super-trendy and architecturally exciting Ace Hotel is already there, and, when it's finished, the Wilshire Grand right up the street will have 900 brand new rooms—and that's not even all the hotels that are on the way.
· Sheraton to Get a $40 Million Makeover [DN]
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